Automatic Energy Food Estimation In Elderly People With Neurodegenerative Disorders

Abstract

Dementia has been an increasing trend with an increase in the population of elderly people, and WHO estimates that the number of individuals with dementia doubles every 20 years. There is no curative solution for dementia, but non-drug approaches can improve patient quality of life. In nursing homes (NH) almost 86% of patients with advanced dementia have problems eating and they need eating assistance. Patients with cognition impairment sometimes confuse food and they do not know when and how much they should eat and drink, so it leads to dehydration and malnutrition which cause weight loss, infection, decreased quality of life and increased risk of death. So, 24-hours caregivers are needed in this situation, and it is so hard for caregivers. Patients with dementia can live easier in the familiar environment, so ATs (Assistive Technologies) can help patients and caregivers to live in their own homes if possible. One of the approaches for monitoring eating activity of people with dementia is calculating calorie of food, the aim of this research is working on it. There are different approaches for measuring calorie of food but most of them depend on the user or they do not consider human value and ethical considerations in their design. Patients with dementia lose their autonomy, so they need an automatic system for calculating calorie of food. The objective of this research is to provide the state of art of the energy food estimation in elderly people with dementia. This study will be a good start for defining our own approaches in the domain.