Giant – Machine Learning for Smart Environments

The population projections made by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), based on the population as of January 1, 2018, suggest that, in the coming decades, in Spain the population of people aged 65 years and over will continue to increase until the year 2033. The number of people aged 65 and over living alone in 2018 was 2,037,700. On the other hand, there is great evidence on the effect of unwanted loneliness and social isolation on the health of the elderly, for example, in cardiovascular diseases, obesity, reduced physical activity and functional capacity, stress, depression , anxiety, sleep disturbances, mild cognitive impairment, risk of various dementias and even Alzheimer’s disease. Several studies have verified the relationship between the walking speed of the elderly with the development of mild cognitive impairment. The objective of this project is twofold, firstly, to evaluate the constructs of loneliness, social isolation, position at home and walking speed of the elderly to relate them to mild cognitive decline. Second, evaluate the constructs of loneliness and social isolation and relate them to caregiver overload. To carry out the longitudinal study, a sample of elderly people and caregivers will be monitored in their own homes. Conversational devices, wearables and bluetooth low energy (BLE) will be used to collect information. Subsequently, the mild cognitive decline of the elderly and the overload of caregivers will be modeled according to the variables, already mentioned, using statistical models and Artificial Intelligence.

The general objective of the proposal is to evaluate loneliness, quality of life, satisfaction with life and well-being through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. To do this, it is proposed to establish new metrics based on objective parameters, such as movement patterns and activity level. In addition, these metrics will be complemented with others obtained from questionnaires that will be answered by interacting with a conversational assistant and from the sentiment analysis based on the data collected by the conversational assistant.

This global objective is broken down into the following specific objectives:

Transfer the current paper questionnaires to collect information on loneliness, satisfaction with life, quality of life and well-being so that they can be carried out through a conversational assistant.

Carry out a sentiment analysis based on the interaction of the users with the virtual assistant to improve the estimation of the indices of loneliness, satisfaction with life, quality of life and well-being of the users.

Monitor behavior patterns through a wearable device inside and outside the home to improve the estimation of the indexes of loneliness, satisfaction with life, quality of life and well-being of users.

Detect possible changes in the behavior pattern of users within their own homes as an indicator of improvement / worsening of the previously listed indicators.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the use of technologies to collect information on loneliness, satisfaction with life, quality of life and well-being.

DIGITALIZACIÓN DE LA EVALUACIÓN DE LA FRAGILIDAD EN PERSONAS MAYORES CON TECNOLOGÍAS NO INTRUSIVAS

TED2021-129866B-I00

LOCALIZACIÓN Y DETECCIÓN INTEGRADA PARA EL SEGUIMIENTO DIGITAL DEL COMPORTAMIENTO HUMANO

PID2021-122642OB-C44