Pain is usually measured through patient reports during doctor visits, but it requires regular evaluation under real-life conditions to be resolved effectively. Over half of older adults suffer from pain. Chronic conditions such as this one may be monitored through technology; however, elderly users require technology to be specifically designed for them, because many have cognitive and physical limitations and lack digital skills. The purpose of this article is to study whether mobile or wearable devices are appropriate to self-report pain levels and to find which body position is more appropriate for elderly people to wear a device to self-report pain. We implemented three prototypes and conducted two phases of evaluation. We found that users preferred the wearable device over the mobile application and that a wearable to self-report pain should be designed specifically for this purpose. Regarding the placement of the wearable, we found that there was no preferred position overall, although the neck position received the most positive feedback. We believe that the possibility of creating a wearable device that may be placed in different positions may be the best solution to satisfy users’ individual preferences.

Monitoring the posture of older persons using portable sensors while they carry out daily activities can facilitate the process of generating indicators with which to evaluate their health and quality of life. The majority of current research into such sensors focuses primarily on their functionality and accuracy, and minimal effort is dedicated to understanding the experience of older persons who interact with the devices. This study proposes a wearable device to identify the bodily postures of older persons, while also looking into the perceptions of the users. For the purposes of this study, thirty independent and semi-independent older persons undertook eight different types of physical activity, including: walking, raising arms, lowering arms, leaning forward, sitting, sitting upright, transitioning from standing to sitting, and transitioning from sitting to standing. The data was classified offline, achieving an accuracy of 93.5%, while overall device user perception was positive. Participants rated the usability of the device, in addition to their overall user experience, highly.

Aging is associated with a progressive decline in health, resulting in increased medical care and costs. Mobile technology may facilitate health self-management, thus increasing the quality of care and reducing costs. Although the development of technology offers opportunities in monitoring the health of older adults, it is not clear whether these technologies allow older adults to manage their health data themselves. This paper presents a review of the literature on mobile health technologies for older adults, focusing on whether these technologies enable the visualization of monitored data and the self-reporting of additional information by the older adults. The systematic search considered studies published between 2009 and 2019 in five online databases. We screened 609 articles and identified 95 that met our inclusion and exclusion criteria. Smartphones and tablets are the most frequently reported technology for older adults to enter additional data to the one that is monitored automatically. The recorded information is displayed on the monitoring device and screens of external devices such as computers. Future designs of mobile health technology should allow older users to enter additional information and visualize data; this could enable them to understand their own data as well as improve their experience with technology.

Displaying the information collected by mobile health technologies remains a challenge, especially when considering representation of health data for older adults -i.e., where and how to display data captured by health devices. We focus on an underrepresented group in HCI research: older adults in the global south, specifcally in Chile and Ecuador. We studied the opinions of a group of 18 older adults on health data representation through interviews and remote co-design practices, encouraging them to imagine representations of health data through a presentation of personal objects. They imagined representations of health data in analog formats, where contextual information would be included. Visualization designs can be integrated into objects that older adults use frequently or are close to them. This study contributes design ideas on representations of health data for older adults in the global south and refections on how to engage this population in remote co-design activities. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI.

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