Persuasive technology to support active and healthy ageing: An exploration of past, present, and future

Abstract

The age of the population worldwide is rapidly increasing, bringing social and economic challenges. Persuasive technology can alleviate the burden on traditional healthcare services when used to support healthy behaviors, for instance in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. Additionally, healthy behaviors are key factors for active and healthy ageing by delaying or even reversing functional decline. In this manuscript, we present a multi-perspective analysis of technologies that can be used in the support of active and healthy ageing in the daily life. First, we take the perspective of physical and mental health, by focusing on the promotion of physical activity and emotional wellbeing. From a temporal perspective, we look at how technology evolved from past, present and future. The overview of the literature is structured in four main sections: (1) measurement of current behavior (monitoring), (2) analysis of the data gathered to derive meaningful information (analyzing & reasoning), (3) support the individual in the adoption or maintenance of a behavior (coaching), and (4) tools or interfaces that provide the information to the individual to stimulate the desired behavior (applications). Finally, we provide recommendations for the design, development and implementation of future technological innovations to support Active and Healthy Ageing in daily life.

A Personalized Physical Activity Coaching App for Breast Cancer Survivors: Design Process and Early Prototype Testing

“…An underlying challenge of these technology-supported interventions is the high attrition rates, with users stopping the use of these systems after a few days or weeks [ 14 - 16 ]. Among the factors associated with user abandonment are that apps are largely targeted at generally healthy individuals and do not address the specific needs of the end users [ 17 ]. Studies with breast cancer survivors suggest that the direction of PA systems should meet the detailed requirements of this particular population [ 13 , 18 ], who may be less motivated to engage in PA and who face unique barriers to reaching the recommended level of PA [ 19 , 20 ].…”

Survey on virtual coaching for older adults

“…This article follows a technological main categorization, instead of user-centred. 4 Here, a wide variety of sensors are considered. Supplemental Table 2 compiles those used in VCSs.…”

“…7,8 Older adults could perceive an added value in their use. 4 However, wearables' major feature is their ability to connect to the Internet and permit network-device data exchanging -Internet of things. Despite their benefits, wearables' usage implies some drawbacks, such as user's discomfort while wearing, recharging, data privacy concerns, indirect data access, black-box-like algorithms, data standardization issues and unverifiable wearable usage.…”

“…Despite their benefits, wearables' usage implies some drawbacks, such as user's discomfort while wearing, recharging, data privacy concerns, indirect data access, black-box-like algorithms, data standardization issues and unverifiable wearable usage. 4 This section categorizes wearables, depending on their purpose of usage, into affective, cognitive, physical and clinical. The different categories of wearables may overlap since they all monitor physiological metrics in the end.…”

Offering a helping hand

“…For example, people with more severe hand function problems might opt for an on/off signal, while mildly affected participants might prefer assist-as-needed, and people experiencing problems with their speech probably choose another modality than voice controlled grasping. Besides personalization of hardware, various data analysis techniques that can deal with the individual, such as (multilevel) longitudinal analyses [197], and machine learning based methods that can determine the existence and strength of interrelationships of various factors using neural networks [198,199], are available for personalization.…”