Effectiveness of the Smart Healthcare Glove System for Elderly Persons with Hypertension

Abstract

With the global population growth of elderly persons, there has been a tendency toward higher quality of life, along with continually increasing expectations and needs for enhanced health care for elderly persons. The purposes of this research were to develop the E‐textile–based Smart Healthcare Glove System (SHGS) with Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator (TENS) as a health care device for the elderly hypertensive, and to evaluate the effectiveness of SHGS for hypertensive treatment. The SHGS consists of an inner glove with sensor‐embedded conductive textiles; an outer glove; a TENS for electrical stimulation; and an arm band for a ubiquitous health care wearable device. The SHGS with TENS is used for hypertension treatment and care by electrically stimulating meridian points on the palm. The health care performance test was carried out with a dozen elderly female patients (six Senior‐old‐ageing and six Old‐ageing groups) suffering from hypertension, and was conducted to measure blood pressure and pulse rate before and after wearing the SHGS with TENS for 15 min. Significantly, this study found that the mean blood pressure of all 12 patients after wearing SHGS decreased from 142.58 ± 9.90/82.46 ± 4.45 mmHg to 119.83 ± 9.23/75.79 ± 4.90 mmHg in systolic blood pressure (p < .001) as well as diastolic blood pressure (p < .01) by paired t test. Also, the mean blood pressure of chronic hypertensive patients decreased significantly from 149.25 ± 9.45/82.75 ± 2.70 mmHg to 125.33 ± 9.78/76.67 ± 3.31 mmHg in systolic blood pressure (p < .001). In addition, there was a significant difference in blood pressure before and after wearing the SHGS by Wilcoxon signed rank test (p value: 0.0313, 0.0005). These results suggest that SHGS decreases blood pressure, improves irregular blood circulation, and can be an effective high‐tech health care device for elderly hypertensive patients. Although this study used only elderly participants, the results of the study may be generalized to hypertensive patients at any age. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

E-textiles in Clinical Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review

“…Some focused on system [16,47] or garment characteristics [25,40], while one paper examined applications in actuation as opposed to simple monitoring [27] and one explored textile sensing of electroencephalography (EEG) [34].…”

“…Specifically targeted at electrical stimulation to alleviate hypertension in older adults, Kim and Cho [27] presented the only paper focused on both monitoring and treatment. A glove-based system was used to sense blood pressure and heart rate in twelve elderly female patients before and after electrical stimulation was delivered through stainless steel thread within the glove.…”

A User Centered Methodology for the Design of Smart Apparel for Older Users

“…The fourth, is a smart glove, with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS) for the elderly’s hypertensive treatment. The device presents an inner with e-textile for stimulating meridian points on the palm, an arm band for ubiquitous healthcare, and TENS [ 52 ].…”

Human-Centered Design Smart Clothing for Ambient Assisted Living of Elderly Users: Considerations in the COVID-19 Pandemic Perspective

“…As a while, Najafi et al [26] proposed smart socks for monitoring plantar temperature and pressure and joint angle in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Kim et al 2012 proposed a smart glove for hypertension composed of an inner and outside glove [27,28]. The inner one contains electrodes stimulating sites for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS), while the outside protects the inner part.…”