Everyday Functioning Benefits from an Assisted Living Platform amongst Frail Older Adults and Their Caregivers
Front. Aging Neurosci.. 2017-09-28; 9:
DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00302
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Ambient assisted living technologies (AAL) are regarded as a promising solution
to support aging in place. Yet, their efficacy has to be demonstrated in terms of
benefits for independent living and for work conditions of caregivers. Hence, the
purpose of this study was to assess the benefits of a multi-task AAL platform for
both Frail older Individuals (FIs) and professional caregivers with respect to
everyday functioning and caregiver burden. In this context, a 6-month field study
involved 32 FIs living at home (half of them were equipped by the platform and
the remaining half were not, as a control condition) and their caregivers.
Everyday functioning measures were reported by frail participants and caregivers.
Self-reported burden measures of caregiver were also collected. The main results
showed that the caregiver’s estimates of everyday functioning of equipped
participants were unchanged across time, while they decreased for the control
participants. Also, a reduction of self-reported objective burden was obtained
after 6 months of AAL intervention for the equipped group, compared to the
control group. Overall, these results highlighted the potential of AAL as a
relevant environmental support for preventing both functional losses in FIs and
objective burden professional caregiver.