Assessing Activity of Daily Living through Technology-Enabled Tools: Mobility and Nutrition Assessment: MiranaBot: A Nutrition Assessment Use Case

Abstract

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) refers to the fundamental skills required to care for one-self and live independently and includes dressing, feeding, personal hygiene, continence and transferring. Assessing ADLs is therefore essential, especially for vulnerable population who may need assistance in performing these activities. As current validated scales to measure ADLs capacity are often dependent of an informant or a caregiver and are mainly performed in the controlled settings of the hospital, using technology-enabled tools could benefit individual’s health in terms of disease prevention and treatment but would also enhance individual’s quality of life and independence. This chapter presents 4 standard validated scales for ADLs and the current research activities on the use of technologies to assess one’s ability to perform ADLs, mainly indoor-outdoor mobility and nutrition. A nutrition assessment use case through a conversational agent is presented in the second part of the chapter. Future opportunities for technology-enabled ADL assessment are discussed.