INLIFE - independent living support functions for the elderly : technology and pilot overview

In this paper, we present the European H2020 project INLIFE (INdependent LIving support Functions for the Elderly). The project brought together 20 partners from nine countries with the goal of integrating into a common ICT platform a range of technologies intended to assist community-dwelling older people with cognitive impairment. The majority of technologies existed prior to INLIFE and a key goal was to bring them together in one place along with a number of new applications to provide a comprehensive set of services. The range of INLIFE services fell into four broad areas: Independent Living Support, Travel Support, Socialization and Communication Support and Caregiver Support. These included security applications, services to facilitate interactions with formal and informal caregivers, multilingual conversation support, web-based physical exercises, teleconsultations, and support for transport navigation. In total, over 2900 people participated in the project; they included elderly adults with cognitive impairment, informal caregivers, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders. The aim of the study was to assess whether there was improvement/stabilization of cognitive/emotional/physical functioning, as well as overall well-being and quality of life of those using the INLIFE services, and to assess user acceptance of the platform and individual services. The results confirm there is a huge interest and appetite for technological services to support older adults living with cognitive impairment in the community. Different services attracted different amounts of use and evaluation with some proving extremely popular while others less so. The findings provide useful information on the ways in which older adults and their families, health and social care services and other stakeholders wish to access technological services, what sort of services they are seeking, what sort of support they need to access services, and how these services might be funded

Usability of a New eHealth Monitoring Technology That Reflects Health Care Needs for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments and Their Informal and Formal Caregivers

The aim of this study was to evaluate an eHealth monitoring application (HELMA) that provides insight in the health status of older adults with cognitive impairments (CI) independently living at home and their caregivers. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data on Usability (System Usability Scale) and Actual Use (Log data). Besides, a subgroup of participants were randomly selected and interviewed about their experiences with HELMA (Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, Behavioural Intention to Use and Attitude). Fifty-four older adults, fifteen formal and fourteen informal caregivers participated in this study. Results showed that HELMA is a useful supplement in the current care for older adults with cognitive impairments. The average SUS score of HELMA of formal caregivers indicated “good” usability. The questions of HELMA are clear. However, older adults lacked digital skills to use HELMA by themselves. Most of the participants (80%) used HELMA according to protocol, for a minimum of 4 weeks. The attitude towards willingness to learn and to use a technology were negative for almost all older adults. More attention to different implementation strategies is needed to increase the eHealth literacy of older adults with CI, to improve independent use of HELMA in the futur