Abstract
The objective assessment of physical activity levels through wearable inertial-based motion detectors for the automatic, continuous and long-term monitoring of people in free-living environments is a well-known research area in the literature. However, their application to older adults can present particular constraints. This paper reviews the adoption of wearable devices in senior citizens by describing various researches for monitoring physical activity indicators, such as energy expenditure, posture transitions, activity classification, fall detection and prediction, gait and balance analysis, also by adopting consumer-grade fitness trackers with the associated limitations regarding acceptability. This review also describes and compares existing commercial products encompassing activity trackers tailored for older adults, thus providing a comprehensive outlook of the status of commercially available motion tracking systems. Finally, the impact of wearable devices on life and health insurance companies, with a description of the potential benefits for the industry and the wearables market, was analyzed as an example of the potential emerging market drivers for such technology in the future.
Highlights
Population ageing, and the related increase in chronic diseases, is having a major impact on the healthcare systems of most western countries, and will be having an even more significant effect in the future
One important aspect for the future research studies is represented by the access to the raw data, and this is one important requirement often addressed by researchers to product companies, in order to develop advanced analytical methods to maximally exploit the amount of available data
The results revealed that more than a quarter of Americans (27%) and a third of Millennials (33%) cite the potential to build a long-term relationship with an insurance company as a reason to share biometric data from a wearable activity tracker
Summary
Population ageing, and the related increase in chronic diseases, is having a major impact on the healthcare systems of most western countries, and will be having an even more significant effect in the future. “As populations continue to age during the post—2015 era, it is imperative that Governments design innovative policies targeted to the needs of older persons, including those addressing housing, employment, health care, social protection, and other forms of intergenerational support. By anticipating these demographic shifts, countries can enact policies proactively to adapt to an ageing population”. Sensors 2017, 17, 1277 trends, because they already affect a large proportion of the population, and because they have started to appear earlier in life It has been projected in [2] that by 2020 chronic diseases will account for almost three-quarters of all deaths worldwide. This paper reviews and compares existing commercial products in the area to provide an outlook of the current development status (Section 5), considering both marketed and forthcoming systems, along with a discussion on the role of insurance companies into the wearables market with the aim of increasing the usage of those technologies (Section 6)
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