ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: As people become older, the biological process of aging leads to a decline in functional capabilities, which entails difficulties in the performance of daily tasks. Within the "Active and Assisted Living Joint Programme" a consortium from Spain, Germany, and Switzerland developed an interactive Exergame software for older adults to maintain their physical abilities and independence within the daily tasks. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: An interventional study was conducted to validate the software. For 3 months, Swiss and Spanish seniors used the system at least three times a week for minimum half an hour in their homes. The physical condition in terms of maintaining or increasing strength, balance, safety, and mobility of the seniors was assessed by using the Berg Balance Scale and the Senior Fitness Test. In addition, the effect on independence within the activities of daily living was assessed by using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, the Performance Quality Rating Scale, and the Iconographical Falls Efficacy Scale. We used the EQ 5D to evaluate the "quality of life." RESULTS: Twenty-nine participants (male; n = 14; female; n = 15) completed the study. Scores of endurance (2 minutes step test; P = 0.01, η2 = 0.3) increased significantly. Moderate effect sizes in quality of life (r = 0.3), lower body strength (η2 = 0.08), and large effect sizes in endurance (η2 = 0.3) were detected. A small effect was evaluated within the gait speed (r = 0.2), mobility in the lower body (r = 0.2), and the balance capabilities (r = 0.2). CONCLUSION: The results of this study lead us to the conclusion that physical training with activity-focused exergames that are related to the everyday tasks of older adults could help to maintain and improve the individual fitness status.
Subject(s)
Activities of Daily Living/psychology , Exercise Therapy/standards , Physical Fitness/psychology , Quality of Life/psychology , Video Games/statistics & numerical data , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Exercise Therapy/methods , Exercise Therapy/statistics & numerical data , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Physical Fitness/physiology , Spain , Statistics, Nonparametric , Switzerland , Video Games/psychologyABSTRACT
Senior citizens can benefit from banking services but the lack of usability hampers this possibility. New approaches based on physiological response, eye tracking and user movement analysis can provide more information during interface interaction. This research shows the differences depending on user knowledge and use of technology, gender and type of interface.
Subject(s)
Banking, Personal/methods , Research Design , User-Computer Interface , Age Factors , Aged , Electrocardiography , Electromyography , Eye Movements , Female , Galvanic Skin Response , Heart Rate , Humans , Male , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
In user-centred design and marketing, personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way [1]. As in other projects, the main application and use value of the persona approach in WeTakeCare project has been to depict and thus make "vivid" the characters and the milieus created and selected. It has helped to better understand and communicate the differences among the potential users. It has also helped to understand the heterogeneity and diversity of the users' lives and to focus on how to meet their actual needs [2].
Subject(s)
Needs Assessment , Self-Help Devices , Activities of Daily Living/psychology , Aged/psychology , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Geriatric Assessment/methods , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Self-Help Devices/psychologyABSTRACT
The new generation of videogame interfaces such as Microsoft's Kinect opens the possibility of implementing exercise programs for physical training, and of evaluating and reducing the risks of elderly people falling. However, applications such as these might require measurements of joint kinematics that are more robust and accurate than the standard output given by the available middleware. This article presents a method based on particle filters for calculating joint angles from the positions of the anatomical points detected by PrimeSense's NITE software. The application of this method to the measurement of lower limb kinematics reduced the error by one order of magnitude, to less than 10°, except for hip axial rotation, and it was advantageous over inverse kinematic analysis, in ensuring a robust and smooth solution without singularities, when the limbs are out-stretched and anatomical landmarks are aligned.
Subject(s)
Joints/physiology , Postural Balance/physiology , Video Games , Biomechanical Phenomena , Humans , Rotation , SoftwareABSTRACT
La línea de investigación «Juego como promoción de un envejecimiento saludable» ha sido concebida desde su inicio como una oportunidad para recoger y generar información de calidad que contribuya, a través del establecimiento de pautas de diseño, a la creación de productos lúdicos de alto valor terapéutico. La producción de este conocimiento pretende, a través de la estimulación de la innovación en la industria, originar a un mismo tiempo beneficios sociales e industriales. La información que ahora se presenta puede resultar valiosa tanto a los sectores industriales del juego y el entretenimiento, facilitando la aplicación de aquellas pautas de diseño que permiten la creación de productos orientados al usuario mayor, como a los profesionales de la atención especializada a las personas mayores, estimulando la creación de estas nuevas alternativas para la intervención psicosocial con grupos e individuos. Asimismo, el impulso de la aparición en el mercado de este tipo de productos espera beneficiar fundamentalmente a los propios mayores, público objetivo y esencial de la línea, mediante la promoción del nacimiento de nuevas líneas de producto que incorporen al colectivo mayor como consumidores de pleno derecho a este tipo de mercado y les permitan acceder a los beneficios preventivos y terapéuticos de la actividad lúdica (AU)
The research line «Play as a promoter of healthy ageing» was conceived from the beginning as an opportunity to gather and generate quality information that could contribute, by establishing design guidelines, to the creation of play products with high therapeutic value. Moreover, by stimulating innovation in the toy industry, this knowledge production aims to benefit both society and the toy industry. The information presented herein could be useful for both the play and leisure sectors, facilitating the application of these design guidelines, which could allow the creation of new products aimed at senior users. Likewise, the entry of this kind of product on the market will hopefully benefit senior citizens themselves, an essential target of this research, by promoting new product lines able to turn the elderly into ipso jure consumers within this market and allowing them to definitively access the preventive and therapeutic effects of play (AU)
