User Centered Virtual Coaching for Older Adults at Home Using SMART Goal Plans and I-Change Model

Abstract

Preventive care and telemedicine are expected to play an important role in reducing the impact of an increasingly aging global population while increasing the number of healthy years. Virtual coaching is a promising research area to support this process. This paper presents a user-centered virtual coach for older adults at home to promote active and healthy aging and independent living. It supports behavior change processes for improving on cognitive, physical, social interaction and nutrition areas using specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-limited (SMART) goal plans, following the I-Change behavioral change model. Older adults select and personalize which goal plans to join from a catalog designed by domain experts. Intervention delivery adapts to user preferences and minimizes intrusiveness in the user’s daily living using a combination of a deterministic algorithm and incremental machine learning model. The home becomes an augmented reality environment, using a combination of projectors, cameras, microphones and support sensors, where common objects are used for projection and sensed. Older adults interact with this virtual coach in their home in a natural way using speech and body gestures on projected user interfaces with common objects at home. This paper presents the concept from the older adult and the caregiver perspectives. Then, it focuses on the older adult view, describing the tools and processes available to foster a positive behavior change process, including a discussion about the limitations of the current implementation.

eHealth Platforms to Promote Autonomous Life and Active Aging: A Scoping Review

“…The included 14 articles were published between 2008 and 2021. They were conducted in several countries: Consortium Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Romania ( n = 1) [ 37 ]; The Netherlands ( n = 1) [ 38 ]; USA ( n = 1) [ 39 ]; Consortium Spain, USA, Greece, Ireland, and Italy ( n = 1) [ 40 ]; Consortium UK, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Austria, France, and Belgium ( n = 1) [ 41 ]; Greece ( n = 1) [ 42 ]; USA ( n = 1) [ 43 ]; Germany ( n = 1) [ 44 ]; Consortium Spain, Sweden, and Greece ( n = 1) [ 45 ]; Belgium ( n = 1) [ 46 ]; Consortium The Netherlands and Italy ( n = 1) [ 47 ]; Consortium Switzerland and The Netherlands ( n = 1) [ 48 ]; Consortium Norway, Germany, and The Netherlands ( n = 1) [ 49 ]; Italy ( n = 1) [ 50 ]. Five studies were experimental studies (Randomized Controlled Trials—RCTs) [ 38 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 49 ], eight studies were descriptive studies [ 37 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 46 , 47 , 50 ], and one was a cross-sectional study [ 48 ] Table 1 .…”

“…The following age ranges were found in these studies: over 40 years [ 38 ], over 55 years [ 43 ], over 60 years [ 46 , 49 ], and over 65 years [ 37 , 39 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 50 ]. One only mentioned the group of older adults, without specifying an age limit [ 40 , 41 , 47 , 48 ].…”

“…Internet of Things technologies (wearable devices, environmental sensors) combined with analytics in the cloud provide a virtual coaching system to support healthy aging [ 37 , 40 , 41 , 45 ]. The NESTORE [ 37 ] system includes a plethora of sensors and other data sources (wearable devices, environmental sensors) to overcome the limitations of vertical solutions (single-domain oriented works) with a strong holistic approach by addressing several singular domains (cognitive, physiological, social, and nutritional) and by considering these domains from a user-centered approach.…”

“…The NESTORE [ 37 ] system includes a plethora of sensors and other data sources (wearable devices, environmental sensors) to overcome the limitations of vertical solutions (single-domain oriented works) with a strong holistic approach by addressing several singular domains (cognitive, physiological, social, and nutritional) and by considering these domains from a user-centered approach. The CAPTAIN [ 40 ] virtual coaching ecosystem places older adults at the center of the coaching process.…”

“…The promotion of healthy aging should involve several domains: physical, mental, emotional, and cognitive areas need to be considered when designing ICT-based solutions for older adults. However, most eHealth solutions available on the market are designed to address only a subset of these domains [ 37 , 38 , 40 ].…”