Rehabilitation has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of falling in older adults. However, low adherence to rehabilitation exercises in the home means that seniors often do not get the therapy that they require. We propose that the use of tailored exergames could encourage adherence to falls rehabilitation in the home, as exergames have proved successful in clinical settings. We describe the results from the first known study to investigate the longterm (12 weeks) use of exergames, designed in close collaboration with elderly users, for falls rehabilitation in the home. Our findings suggest that there is an untapped potential of exergames for home rehabilitation use, as our findings show that there was better adherence to exercise in participants who used the exergames, versus those who used standard care. Finally, we make recommendations for designers, on the design of exergames for the rehabilitation of seniors.
Falls are the leading cause of accidental injury-related deaths in the elderly; a fall can lead to a loss of independence, and a fear of falling. Rehabilitation programmes involving exercise have proved the most successful way to reduce the risk of falls. However, the limitations of standard care (e.g. booklets) could prevent home users from receiving the full therapeutic benefit that rehabilitation offers. Having consulted users and health experts, we developed games, and visualizations for falls rehabilitation that we believe could potentially overcome the main barriers to effective rehabilitation in the home. In this paper, we describe user studies that we carried out with older adults to evaluate the use of these visual tools versus standard care, both in the laboratory and in the home. Our main findings show that our visualizations and games were able to overcome the major limitations of standard care, and that they were usable and acceptable to the end users.
Abstract. This paper describes a series of user studies carried out to investigate the usability, significance, and acceptance of two visualization tools designed to improve the quality of, and adherence to home-based exercise programmes for musculoskeletal rehabilitation. The core functionality of these visualization tools enabled the users to observe the optimal way to perform their exercises via a mannequin, and receive feedback on their own movements through the use of body worn sensors. Before full deployment in the home, two user studies were carried out in the laboratory, and then two in the home with seniors who had recently undergone musculoskeletal rehabilitation using a standard care paper based booklet in the home. Our key findings suggest that by using the visualization tools the participants were able to overcome the major limitations of standard care; and that these tools were considered by the users to be useful in encouraging participation in home exercise.
Abstract. This paper presents the results from a user workshop that was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the nature of current home rehabilitation tools and the motivation to exercise. We also present a method of visual feedback which we hope will be an effective tool for informing users regarding important clinical measures associated with their recovery. Older adults over the age of 60 were involved in the study. The findings from the user workshop suggest that the relatively passive nature of current rehabilitation materials is less than ideal for sustaining motivation to exercise. Furthermore, our results suggest that visual feedback and more interactive methods can play an important role in engaging users in home rehabilitation.
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