Using IoT Assistive Technologies for Older People Non-Invasive Monitoring and Living Support in Their Homes

Abstract

Many western societies are confronted with issues in planning and adapting their health policies due to an ageing population living alone. The “NOt Alone at Home—NOAH” project aimed to involve older people in the Agile co-creation of services for a collaborative monitoring and awareness notification for remote caregivers. Our research aim was to create a scalable and modern information system that permitted a non-invasive monitorization of the users for keeping their caregivers up to date. This was done via a cloud IoT (Internet of Things), which collects and processes data from its domotic sensors. The notifications generated by the system, via the three applications we developed (NOAH/NOAH Care/Admin Centre), offer caregivers an easy way of detecting changes in the day-to-day behaviour and activities of their patients, giving them time to intervene in case of abnormal activity. Such an approach would lead to a longer and more independent life for the older people. We evaluated our system by conducting a year-long pilot-study, offering caregivers constant information from the end-users while still living independently. For creating our pilot groups, we used the ABAS (Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System) II, which we then matched with the pre-profiled Behavioral Analysis Models of older people familiar with modern communication devices. Our results showed a low association between daily skills and the sensors we used, in contrast with the results from previous studies done in this field. Another result was efficiently capturing the behaviour changes that took place due to the COVID-19 Lockdown measures.

Comparison of Collaborative and Cooperative Schemes in Sensor Networks for Non-Invasive Monitoring of People at Home

“…Measuring usability can help ensure that these systems are effective and easy to use and can help identify any issues that may prevent the system from working effectively. This can help improve the overall quality of life for older adults and can provide peace of mind for their caregivers and family members [ 59 ].…”

A Helping Hand to the Elderly: Securing Their Freedom through the HAIE Framework

“…The robust system discussed in [22], called Not Alone at Home (NOAH), utilizes specialized home sensors to non-intrusively record various aspects of daily living activities. The authors of [23] proposed a block representation of an IoT-based home monitoring system (HMS).…”

Implementation of the IoT-Based Technology on Patient Medication Adherence: A Comprehensive Bibliometric and Systematic Review

“…In the healthcare industry, where confidential patient information must be protected from unauthorised access or breaches, these concerns are of the utmost importance. In addition, this review emphasises the importance of considering the efficacy of IoT technologies, particularly when implemented among elderly patients or individuals with limited technical proficiency (Coughlin et al, 2007;Moraru et al, 2022). The inability of these demographic groups to implement and utilise IoT devices effectively may result in suboptimal medication adherence rates.…”