Online monitoring of financial capacity in older adults: Feasibility and initial findings

Abstract

Introduction Impairment in financial capacity places older adults at risk of fraud or abuse and can be a harbinger of loss of independence. Online automated monitoring of financial transactions offers an objective, unobtrusive, and continuous data collection strategy to minimize risk and to detect early changes in an important complex activity of daily living. Methods Ninety‐three participants used an online financial activity monitoring platform that extracted metrics related to use and potential departures from established patterns of financial behavior. Standard neuropsychological assessments and a performance‐based measure of financial capacity at baseline were compared using continuous monitoring metrics. Results Participants demonstrated a willingness to engage with an online financial activity monitoring system. Online metrics were not associated with performance in specific cognitive domains. Performance on an established test of financial capacity was negatively correlated with a ratio of alerts to transactions, that is, a higher likelihood of errors or deviations from previous activity. Discussion To our knowledge, this is the first reported study using secure online technology to link ongoing unobtrusively collected financial activity monitoring data with other objective measures of function and cognition in a cohort of independent living older adults.

The development and validation of a digital biomarker for remote assessment of Alzheimer's diseases risk

“… 29 , 30 These findings also contribute towards the body of evidence supporting the feasibility of remote neuropsychological assessments for both research and clinical assessment. 31 – 35 …”

Navigating Privacy and Data Safety: The Implications of Increased Online Activity among Older Adults Post-COVID-19 Induced Isolation

“…The online monitoring of financial transactions can alert users to suspicious activity and even detect a decline in financial competence. A study by Wild et al [70] found a significant negative correlation (p = 0.03) between a simplified measure of financial capacity and the number of automated alerts triggered on older adult participants' financial transactions. This expands on recent research that successfully linked the type, frequency, and duration of computer usage with mild cognitive impairment [71].…”

“…An opportunity exists for new primary research that leverages the natural experiment provided by COVID-19 to identify and evaluate this vulnerable group of hesitant ICT adopters. The approaches to the mitigation of privacy risks identified in the included studies were not distinguished for QTIs from approaches for other older adults and comprised various educational strategies, automated financial transaction monitoring [70], and the application of international models, such as Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Single Market (DSM) [8].…”