IL-1ra is a powerful prognostic marker in very old people. Our results implicate its role in the complex interaction between inflammatory markers in aging and disease.

SUMMAR Y There is a need to develop unobtrusive methods for long-term monitoring of sleep/wake and circadian activity patterns in the elderly both in nursing homes and at home settings as sleep is important for health and well-being. The IST VivagoÒ WristCare is an active social alarm system, which provides continuous telemetric monitoring of the user's activity. We examined how the activity signal measured by IST Vivago differed between demented and non-demented subjects living in a nursing home, and how it correlated with the subjective assessment of sleep quality and daytime alertness. The activity signal data together with subjective assessments of sleep quality and daytime vigilance were collected from 42 volunteers (aged 56-97 years; 23 demented and 19 nondemented) for at least 10 days. The demented subjects had lower daytime activity and higher nocturnal activity than the non-demented subjects. Correlations between the activity parameters and self-assessments were weak but statistically significant. We also found correlation between functional ability and diurnal activity. The results are in line with previous studies with demented and non-demented elderly subjects and suggest that the IST Vivago system provides a valid instrument for unobtrusive continuous long-term monitoring of the circadian rhythm and sleep/wake patterns in the elderly.k e y w o r d s actigraphy, ageing, circadian rhythm, long-term, sleep, telemetric

We developed a system consisting of both wearable and ambient technologies designed to monitor personal wellbeing for several months during daily life. The variables monitored included bodyweight, blood pressure, heart-rate variability and air temperature. Two different user groups were studied: there were 17 working-age subjects participating in a vocational rehabilitation programme and 19 elderly people living in an assisted living facility. The working-age subjects collected data for a total of 1406 days; the average participation period was 83 days (range 43-99). The elderly subjects collected data for a total of 1593 days; the average participation period was 84 days (range 19-107). Usage, technical feasibility and usability of the system were also studied. Some technical and practical problems appeared which we had not expected such as thunder storm damage to equipment in homes and scheduling differences between staff and the subjects. The users gave positive feedback in almost all their responses in a questionnaire. The study suggests that the data-collection rate is likely be 70-90% for typical health monitoring data.

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