Abstract
Ambient assisted living technologies (AAL) are regarded as a promising solution to support aging in place. Yet, their efficacy has to be demonstrated in terms of benefits for independent living and for work conditions of caregivers. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the benefits of a multi-task AAL platform for both Frail older Individuals (FIs) and professional caregivers with respect to everyday functioning and caregiver burden. In this context, a 6-month field study involved 32 FIs living at home (half of them were equipped by the platform and the remaining half were not, as a control condition) and their caregivers. Everyday functioning measures were reported by frail participants and caregivers. Self-reported burden measures of caregiver were also collected. The main results showed that the caregiver's estimates of everyday functioning of equipped participants were unchanged across time, while they decreased for the control participants. Also, a reduction of self-reported objective burden was obtained after 6 months of AAL intervention for the equipped group, compared to the control group. Overall, these results highlighted the potential of AAL as a relevant environmental support for preventing both functional losses in FIs and objective burden professional caregiver.
Highlights
Over the last decade, extensive research efforts have been provided to develop technologies that support aging in place, and that reduce caregiver burden
Z-scores of the two measures of functional status are plotted on Figure 3
Results indicate that the functional status of control participants decreased considerably over time [t(1, 15) = 4.69; p < 0.001; η2 = 0.59], whereas no significant decline was observed for equipped participants (p > 0.100)
Summary
Extensive research efforts have been provided to develop technologies that support aging in place, and that reduce caregiver burden. Current solutions include a variety of assistive technologies that were developed according to the “ambient intelligence” paradigm This paradigm aims to empower people’s capabilities by means of digital environments that are sensitive, adaptive, and responsive to human needs (Rashidi and Mihailidis, 2013 for review). These assisted living technologies are called ambient-assisted living (AAL) devices. A common drawback in existing AAL technologies is the lack of experimental validation (Reeder et al, 2013) In this vein, the benefits of AAL should be demonstrated with respect to both the autonomy of older adults, and the caregiver’s self-perceived burden.
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