A Literature Review on the Design of Smart Homes for People with Dementia Using a User-Centred Design Approach

Abstract

The number of people with dementia is rising every year, and it is getting more expensive to provide care for them in specially designed care centres. Furthermore, some people with dementia prefer to live independently, and to be accompanied by informal and family caregivers. One way to meet this requirement of people with dementia is to place them in smart homes. Smart homes facilitate extra care for people with dementia with automated and semi-automated support. However, smart homes need to be designed in a way that addresses the specific needs of people with dementia. One suggested approach is the usercentred design method, which involves the participation of people with dementia and their caregivers during the design process. This paper presents a literature review of smart homes for people with dementia and user-centred design. The paper attempts to provide a sound review, which can be useful for designers and developers of smart homes for people with dementia.smart homes, people with dementia, user-centred design, literature review

How smart homes are used to support older people: An integrative review

“…Our results were similar to those of previous reviews, where smart home technology was used to build up a picture of how they could provide an illness‐centred approach (Raei & Bouchachia, ) and how effective the technology was with regard to helping older people feel safe and independent at home (Morris et al, ; Peetom et al, ). However, the world we live in, and the way we care for older people, is constantly changing and new smart home technology is being developed.…”

“…Our review shows that smart homes supported older people's daily activities and healthy living, by improving the quality of their daily activities, tasks and how they used objects in everyday life (Morris et al, , Peetom et al, , Raei & Bouchachia, ), as reported in the previous studies. They also improved their ability to cope.…”

“…Based on the previous reviews, smart homes for older people have been investigated with regard to monitoring technology in their own home (Peetom, Lexis, Joore, Dirksen, & Witte, ) and how smart home technology supports older people with diseases such as dementia (Raei & Bouchachia, ). In addition, Morris et al () evaluated the effectiveness of smart home solutions to assist older people, so that they could live safely and independently at home.…”

The effectiveness of smart home technologies to support the health outcomes of community-dwelling older adults living with dementia: A scoping review

“…Moreover, our findings also reinforce the importance of including measures of user perceptions and acceptance within evaluation studies (as was done in three studies), as these factors are known important drivers in smart home technology usage and, ultimately, effectiveness [31]. Echoing the recommendations of previous authors [10,32], we therefore also encourage that future studies aim to include the experiences and preferences of end-users (e.g., people with dementia and their carers) explicitly in the development and evaluations of the smart home technologies.…”

From Smart Homes to Smart-Ready Homes and Communities

“…For example, a smart home could provide a dementia-friendly design and include technologies to facilitate extra care with (semi-)automated support [3]. Other assistive environments could focus, for example, on frailty or other physical or sensory disabilities.…”