SCC-PG: Fostering Aging-in-Place and Autonomy in Elderly Persons through Intelligent Tracking

随着人们年龄的增长，他们开始需要日常生活活动（ADL）的帮助。失去日常生活能力需要这些人接受家庭成员的照顾，搬到老年生活社区或经历生活质量的显着下降。考虑到未来几十年老年人数量的预计增长，可用于照顾这一人口的资源将分散，可能会使一些人获得较低质量的照顾，甚至没有任何形式的照顾。解决这个问题的一种方法是开发系统，让老年人能够独立生活，同时更长时间地保持生活质量。这种系统不仅可以满足独立生活的愿望，而且还可以减轻护理人员的护理负担和/或对更昂贵的长期护理形式的需求。该项目将为开发一个可扩展的gerontechnological系统奠定基础，该系统由传感器和新颖的算法组成，旨在识别现实世界中的ADL表现。通过跟踪居民日常生活能力的表现，我们的目标是促进更及时和相关的护理和干预。该项目与多个老年生活社区合作，开发一个老年技术系统，可以量化日常健康状况，为那些希望就地养老的人提供有意义的护理。本计画补助金试图透过访谈、观察性研究，以及对各合作老人生活社区的初步技术细节的确定，来回答下列研究问题：（1）建立在日常生活能力与居住地点认知基础上的老人科技系统，照顾者与居住者的具体需求是什麽？(2)室内定位系统（IPS）的要求是什么？(3)照顾者和居民的隐私需求和关注是什么，该系统如何解决这些问题？从计划资助中获得的信息将使我们能够提交一份多年期的综合研究资助，该资助将试图回答以下研究问题：（1）使用可穿戴设备和新型机器学习算法和方法的组合能否准确识别常见的ADL？(2)活动模式的识别、对居民和护理人员的反馈以及个性化干预措施如何支持和/或影响老年生活社区居民的生活？(3)活动模式的识别、对居民和护理人员的反馈以及个性化的ADL如何支持和/或影响工作量并减轻老年生活设施内护理人员的护理负担？这项工作的成功完成有可能通过监测和支持老年人口的健康，将当前的老年人保健模式从被动转变为主动。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As people age they begin to need assistance with activities of daily life (ADLs). Losing the ability to perform ADLs requires that these individuals receive care from family members, move to senior living communities or experience a significant drop in their quality of life. Given the projected rise in the number of older adults over the coming decades, the resources available to care for this population will be spread thin, potentially leaving some with lower quality of care or even without any form of care. One means of addressing this is developing systems that allow older adults to live independently while maintaining their quality of life for longer. Such systems would not only meet a well-documented desire to live independently, but also reduce the burden of care on caregivers and/or the need for more expensive forms of long-term care. This project will lay the groundwork for the development of a scalable gerontechnological system consisting of sensors and novel algorithms designed to recognize ADL performance in real-world settings. Through tracking of resident performance of ADLs we aim to facilitate more timely and relevant care and interventions.The project works with multiple senior living communities to develop a gerontechnological system that allows for a quantified daily health profile to enable meaningful care for those who wish to age-in-place. This planning grant attempts to answer the following research questions through interviews and observational studies with each collaborating senior living community and determination of preliminary technological details: (1) What are the specific needs of both caregivers and residents from a gerontechnological system built on the recognition of ADLs and resident location? (2) What are the requirements of the indoor positioning system (IPS)? (3) What are the privacy needs and concerns of the caretakers and residents and how can the system address them? The information gained from the planning grant will allow us to submit a multi-year Integrative Research Grant that will attempt to answer the following research questions: (1) Can common ADLs be accurately recognized using a combination of wearable devices and novel machine learning algorithms and methodologies? (2) How does the recognition of activity patterns, feedback to residents and caregivers, and individually-tailored interventions support and/or impact the lives of senior living community residents? (3) How does the recognition of activity patterns, feedback to residents and caregivers, and individually-tailored ADL support and/or impact the workload and ease the burden of care on the caregivers within the senior living facilities? Successful completion of this work has the potential to transform the current paradigm of elderly healthcare from reactive to proactive by monitoring and supporting the health of the elderly population.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.