Assistive Technology for Ageing
Post date: 18-Nov-2014 05:47:28
Population ageing has become a global phenomenon as a result of life longevity and declining
birth rate of modern society, especially in developed regions. The trend will be
more severe and cause larger impact on our society in the coming years. The number
of people aged 65 or older is projected to grow from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to
nearly 1.5 billion in 2050, with most of the increase in developing countries. Europe
is currently holding the highest proportion of ageing population. As the demographic
statistics reports [3], the amount of population over 60 years old is 24.5 % of the total
of Europe. The growing number of elderly population will be accompanied with rapid
increasing number of people with mental and physical impairments as well as various
age-related chronic disease such as, cognitive decline, hyperactivity disorder, mental retardation,
autism spectrum disorders and motor handicap etc . In the USA., more
than 84% of senior citizens over 65 are living with one or more chronic disease. Dementia
is an age-related disease that about 5% of people over 65 are suffering from dementia
(Alzheimer`s disease is a most common one of dementia). It usually lead to problems
to the elderly such as impairments in memory, attention, judgement, and decision making,
often profoundly a.affect a person`s ability to perform everyday activities, and thus
signi.cantly reduces his or her quality of life [5]. In another study [6] which focused on
the ability to perform speci.c activities of daily living (ADLs), over 27% of communityresident
Medicare bene.ciaries over age 65 in 2009 had di.culty in performing one or
more ADLs and an additional 12.7% reported di.culties with instrumental activities of
daily living (IADLs). By contrast, 95% of institutionalized Medicare bene.ciaries had
di.culties with one or more ADLs and 74% of them had di.culty with three or more
ADLs. IADLs include preparing meals, shopping, managing money, using the telephone,
doing housework, and taking medication.
The demographic change towards ageing population will lead to daunting challenges
for our society and healthcare systems. According to [7], up to 19 million population
give primary assistance with daily activities to their elderly or dependent relatives. 70
% of individuals can not live independently and need activity assistance and healthcare
from caregiver. In 2012, 15.4 million caregivers provided an estimated 17.5 billion hours
of unpaid care, valued at more than $216 billion [5]. The financial costs of dementia are
formidable too. Costs of caring for people with Alzheimer's And other dementia as will
soar from An estimated $203 billion from 2013 to a projected $1.2 trillion per year by
2050 in the USA. In total, dementia is estimated to cost the UK 23 billion a year. It
estimated that the global cost of dementia in 2010 at $604 billion which is 1% of global
GDP and it is likely that these costs will rise sharply in proportion to the number of
elderly people in the coming years. Therefore, this phenomena of continuously increasing
of older population will bring huge burden and stress to the families and society [8].
As consequent of the increasingly ageing population, it is motivation to .find solution
to improve the living condition and develop more robust but low cost healthcare systems
to reduce the burden to society. Information and Communication Technology could play
a remarkable role to conquer this challenge. From last decades, the research on ICT enabled
support for independent living of the elderly has been drawing great attention
from the communities and governments. There are many potential areas where ICT can
be significant.cant to counteract the .affects of population ageing. The term of Ambient Assist
Living becomes a field to investigate innovative technologies to provide assistance as well
as healthcare and rehabilitation to senior people with impairment, especially for people
with some cognitive impairment living on their own. These innovative applications enable
them to live independently, comfortably, stately and stay healthily throughout their life pan, namely
ageing well-being. In some point of view, AAL technology is based on the
concept of ambient intelligence (AmI). AmI was coined by the Information Society Technology
(ISTAG) of European Commission in 2001 [9]. AAL has been distinguished from
AmI to form a subject devoted to provide personalized, adaptive, pervasive, unobtrusive,
and anticipatory services in living environment. AAL application make use of ICT based
technologies such as sensor network, robotics, smart home, ubiquitous computing etc.
to undertake services that improve the life quality of the elderly. In a smart home, the
system monitors the activities of dweller`s daily life and provide actions such as home
automation, medication reminder, health warning and safety/risk management etc. Some
service robots as well as intelligent vehicles, like intelligent wheelchair, are employed to
facilitate daily life and contribute to caregiver's performance.
[1] B. Mirkin and M. B. Weinberger, \The demography of population ageing," 2010,
Accessed on Dec. 5, 2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.un.org/esa/population/
publications/bulletin42 43/weinbergermirkin.pdf
[2] WHO, \Global Health and Aging," National Institute on Aging, National Institutes
of Health, Tech. Rep., 2011, Accessed on Dec. 5, 2013. [Online]. Available:
http://www.who.int/ageing/publications/global health.pdf
[3] Department of Economic and Social A.airs Population Division United Nations ,
\World population ageing: 1950-2050," 2013, Accessed on Dec. 5, 2013 . [Online].
Available: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldageing19502050
[4] Population Reference Bureau, \Communication from the commission to the
european parliament and the council on a european initiative on alzheimers
disease and other dementias," 2009, Accessed on Dec. 5, 2013. [Online].
Available: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph information/dissemination/documents/
com2009 380 en.pdf
[5] The Alzheimer`s Association, \2013 alzheimer`s disease facts and .gures," 2013,
Accessed on Dec. 5, 2013 . [Online]. Available: http://www.alz.org/downloads/
facts .gures 2013.pdf
[6] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, \A Pro.le of Older
Americans: 2011," 2011, Accessed on Dec. 5, 2013. [Online]. Available:
http://www.aoa.gov/Aging Statistics/Pro.le/2011/docs/2011pro.le.pdf
[7] Population Reference Bureau, \America`s aging population," 2011, Accessed on
Dec. 5, 2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.prb.org/pdf11/aging-in-america.pdf
[8] Alzheimers Disease international, \World alzheimer report 2012-overcoming the
stigma of dementia," 2012, Accessed on Dec. 5, 2013. [Online]. Available:
http://www.alz.org/documents custom/world report 2012 .nal.pdf
[9] EU IST Advisory Group , \Ambient intelligence: from vision to reality," 2003.
[10] H. Nakashima, H. Aghajan, and J. Augusto, Handbook of ambient intelligence and
smart environments. IOS, 2010.