Assessment of emerging mobile connected technologies to promote outdoor mobility and transit in older adults and in those with Alzheimers disease and related dementias: Usability, stressors, barriers, and implications for policy
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AbstractBackgroundPopulation aging is known to increase the risk of Alzheimers Disease (AD) and ADRelated Dementias (ADRD). A majority of older adults and those with ADRD prefer to age within their neighborhoods. Maintenance of mobility is important for both older adults and in those with ADRD to sustain independence and to promote qualityoflife. However, changes in mobility patterns outside of home can create physical and emotional distress due to infrastructure barriers and lack of accessible transportation.MethodOur overall approach will synthesize learnings from literature review on (1a) commercial technologies that collect, monitor, visualize and analyze data on mobility patterns; (1b) research advances on algorithm developments for mobility, disease pattern detection and prediction and from (2) summary of focused interviews from field experts in several domains: transit technologies, urban planning, assistive technology partners, healthy aging and community environments, and from gerontologists with expertise in dementia care.ResultThe paper aims to understand the how, when, where, and why of walking and travel needs, current barriers, and how technologies can overcome challenges and support healthy aging in community environments and foster dementiafriendly transportation for older adults and for those with ADRD. The paper aims to review (1) commercial technologies and research advances that can monitor outdoor physical activities (e.g. wearable technologies including wristband type sensors, inertial measurement units, and smartphone to collect physiological responses for electrodermal activity, heart rate, gait patterns, and body balances), (2) stressors and barriers in senior living community environments and the source of physical and emotional distress (e.g. Computer Vision techniques), and (3) mobile transportation technologies (e.g. MEILI, rMove, Itinerum, PEACOX, SmartMo, GPSATD, Future Mobility Sensing, MMMonitor) that allow the understanding of everyday independent mobility patterns and transport needs for older adults, for those with AD+ADRD and their caregivers.ConclusionUnderstanding of mobility patterns and visual appearance of neighborhoods for older adults and for cognitively challenged may aid in the creation of stressor and barrierfree environments; a prerequisite to promote mobility, independence, and for constructing a digital twin city (DTC) model for agefriendly and dementia friendly transitcommunities.
