Building digital replicas of unpaid carers to better meet community needs: : Exploring the use of Personal Digital Twin (PDT) technology

人类天生具有社会性，高质量的社会关系对人类的健康和幸福至关重要。缺乏社会关系和不经常接触是克服孤独和社会隔离的最主要挑战，特别是在老年人中（美国国家科学院，2020年）。反过来，孤独和社会孤立会导致身体和心理健康状况不佳。高水平的孤独感、与家人和朋友的低频率接触以及对社区团体的低参与度会导致老年人患痴呆症和认知能力下降的高风险（Kuiper et al., 2015）。这是一个关键问题，因为世界老龄化人口正在稳步增长，到2050年，65岁或以上的人口预计将达到16亿，占全球人口的17% （Fulmer et al., 2020）。因此，如何减轻老年人的孤独感和社会孤立是一项重大的技术和社会挑战。

Humans are social by nature, and high-quality social relationships are vital for human's health and wellbeing. The lack of social relationships and infrequent contacts have been the most addressed challenges to overcome loneliness and social isolation, especially among elderly people (National Academies of Sciences, 2020). In turn, loneliness and social isolation can lead to poor physical and mental health. The high levels of loneliness, low frequency of contact with family and friends, and low levels of participation in community groups can lead to the high risk of dementia and cognitive decline in elderly people (Kuiper et al., 2015). This is a critical problem, given that the world's ageing population is steadily growing and by 2050 the segment of people aged 65 years or older is projected to reach 1.6 billion, which will be 17% of the population worldwide (Fulmer et al., 2020). Thus, how to alleviate loneliness and social isolation in elderly people is a significant technological and societal challenge.