1 research outputs found
Monitoring of lifestyle and cognitive status in seniors at risk of dementia: the SmartAging program
Lifestyle and risk factors affect the development of diseases, cognitive
decline and loss of autonomy during ageing. In the Italian Smart Health
2.0 project, we developed the SmartAging program offering innovative ICT
solutions, grounded upon the Italian Telecom platform (“Nuvola Italian Home
Doctor”), to contrast cognitive decline and support “active” ageing. Specifically,
the SmartAging program includes tools for daily telemonitoring at subjects’
home of: (i) eating behaviour, (ii) physical exercise, (iii) tobacco consumption,
(iv) cultural, social and relational activities, (v) cognitive functions, (vi) weight,
temperature, and blood pressure. Furthermore, a Point of Care device and a Self-
Assessment Health Station (i.e. health medical equipment), in proximity to the
subjects’ home, allowed periodic measures of blood biomarkers and physiological
indices. To demonstrate the feasibility of this program, we performed a
clinical proof of concept study for 16 weeks on 10 elderly subjects (5 being
oncological long-term survivors). All subjects expressed a need for education
and assistance concerning a healthy lifestyle. Most of them expressed a preference
for ICT-based home programs to improve the lifestyle over institutional
programs. All expressed satisfaction with the SmartAging program in terms of
simplicity, clarity, adequacy and reported a positive impact on their quality of
life. These results suggest that the SmartAging program fulfills all the requirements
to be considered an innovative technological approach for the lifestyle
education and telemonitoring of seniors, to prevent dementing disorders. Some
concepts of the SmartAging program have been further developing in the
H2020-MSCA-ITN-ETN BBDiag project