Knowledge Creation in Technology Evaluation of 4-Wheel Electric Power Assisted Bicycle for Frail Elderly Persons - A Case Study of a Salutogenic Device in Healthcare Facilities in Japan

Abstract

As societies age, it is anticipated that we will see a sudden increase in the number of frail elderly persons. New assisted-technology (AT) devices to facilitate the activities of daily life (ADL), especially of walking, are essential for the healthy life of these people. However, frail elderly people suffer a variety of physical and mental weaknesses that tend to hinder their ability to make use of AT devices in the intended manner. Because of this, it is important that new AT devices undergo technology evaluation within the context in which they are to be used, but there is very little research in this area. In this study, frail elderly people in Japanese daycare centers and rehabilitation facilities were given a 4-wheel, power-assisted bicycle, called a "Life Walker" (LW), to ride, and technology evaluations were carried out based on functionality, usability, and experience as perceived by the frail elderly riders. The LW is considered to be best suited for those age 75 and older assessed at level 1 to 3 under Japan's long-term care insurance program, but the data for the 61 people at the rehabilitation facility who tried out the bicycle under the supervision of a resident physical therapist (PT), indicated that there was considerable individual deviation on the continued use of the AT device. The LW is also meant to enable frail elderly users who have difficulty walking to go outside and enjoy themselves more. It was found, however, that this effect was achieved only when the physical therapist intervened, gave encouragement, adjusted the bicycle settings as needed for the user, and otherwise created new knowledge. It was also found that in order for this kind of knowledge creation to take place, the bicycle must be used in an appropriate setting, the user needs to have a proactive attitude, and organizational support to ensure that therapists are appropriately assigned is necessary.

Real-Time Assessment of Causal Attribution Shift and Stay Between Two Successive Tests of Movement Aids

“…Considerations on how to predict transitions in emotions and achievement motivation based on the classification of utterance data according to attribution theory also considered interviews carried out after the use of the Life Walker: an electric-assisted four-wheeled cycle (Section 5). For specifications of the Life Walker device used in this study, please refer to the paper by Saijo et al (2014).…”

“…1). This is an example of a welfare device that was developed to allow users with disabilities to move as fast as people who can walk (Ohashi et al 2017;Saijo et al 2014;Watanabe et al 2020). Figure 1 shows a user test of a Life Walker in Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture (more details in Section 4).…”

Designing an Abnormal Posture Detection System to Prevent Accidents During Meal Assistance for Older Adults: A User-Centered Design Approach

“…Therefore, the challenges associated with a super-aging society are not just relevant for Japan, but for the entire world [1]. To meet these challenges, in recent years, many assistive devices have been actively developed, including meal assistive devices [2,3] and movement aid devices [4][5][6], to assist not only in the cognitive and physical decline of older adults but also the work of caregivers [1,7].…”