Symposium: Active and Healthy Ageing supported by Technology
The increase in the proportion of the population older than 60 years old calls for innovative strategies to support Active and Healthy Ageing. Technology-based solutions can support in prevention, and self-management of chronic diseases. But how can technology support us understanding the human behavior in everyday life? How to make sense of the data collected? How can technology support in adopting healthy behaviors? These are some of the questions covered in this symposium, which hosts a multidisciplinary and international panel of experts. The symposium is of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of eHealth, and healthy ageing.
Program
09:30 | Welcome. Opening Speech |
| Prof. Miriam Vollenbroek-Hutten University of Twente, Biomedical Signals and Systems group Ziekenhuisgroep Twente, Research Coordinator |
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09:40 | Using real-time technology to assess and change (un)healthy behaviour in everyday life |
| Prof. Ulrich Ebner-Priemer Kalsruher Institut fur Technologie, Institut für Sport und Sportwissenschaften |
Abstract: Psychopathology is not simply experiencing weird symptoms or more negative than positive affect. Such a static view would ignore the moment-to-moment ebb and flow of symptoms, which characterizes disorders. Fortunately, the unparalleled progress in mobile technology enables to capture the dynamics of psychopathology in everyday life, a methodology called Ambulatory Assessment. In my talk, I will focus on three different examples of Ambulatory Assessment to illustrate opportunities in health-related research: a) utilizing high-frequency data assessment to model affective dynamics in borderline personality disorder, b) using location-triggered e-diaries to investigate the relation between stress-reactivity and environmental components, which are presumed to be relevant for the development of schizophrenia, c) monitoring physical activity and telecommunication behaviour to predict upcoming episodes in bipolar patients. In conclusion, Ambulatory Assessment does offer a wealth of methodological approaches to enhance understanding and interventions regarding health-related dynamic symptoms in the most important context: the daily lives of our patients. | |
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10:00 | Intelligent Data Analysis for Decision Support in Frailty Prevention |
| Prof. Enrique Gomez Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Bioengineering and Telemedicine Centre |
| Abstract: Demographic ageing is a global trend in the European Union. Among older adults, frailty has emerged as one of the main topics in the fight against disability and poor quality of life in older adults in Europe. Frailty is a frequent condition, with a prevalence of about 10% in the population over age 60, reaching 25% in those aged 80 and older. The frailty syndrome is a complex interaction between several factors, including natural physiological alterations seen in aging, comorbid diseases, nutritive and nutritional insufficiencies, cumulative negative environmental impact, genetics, and lifestyle choices. Intelligent algorithms for data analysis and decision support tools are being applied for implementing older adults’ early intervention and treatment procedures for frailty prevention. Data analysis approaches are based on data analytics methods, data mining and big data. This talk will present and discuss some examples of data analysis methods and technological approaches involved on frailty prevention. A general care and rehabilitation model will be particularized to identify the main areas in which intelligent data analysis is required in frailty prevention such as screening, monitoring and training procedures. Some examples will be presented: the first one, on intelligent therapy assignment for cognitive training in older adults and the second one on data mining techniques implemented within the PERSSILAA EU project. In PERSSILAA, frailty prevention was addressed focused on cognitive, physical activity and nutrition domains. Data analysis was applied for users’ classification, decision support for training interventions, intelligent monitoring and therapy personalization, automatic recommendations and data visualization with the final aim to knowledge discovery for determining frailty status and preventing older adults decline. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn in the context of new data analysis trends and current challenges to apply big data technologies to improve older adults’ quality of life and promote active and healthy ageing. |
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10:20 | Playful Technologies for Happy and Healthy Living |
| Prof. Dirk Heylen University of Twente, Human Media Interaction group |
| Abstract: The Human Media Interaction group has been involved in numerous projects that investigate the use of digital technology to improve the health and well-being using a variety of media - from virtual coaches to ambient environments - and targeting a variety of user groups - diabetes, dementia, addiction, social phobia, physical rehabilitation. This talk will review these studies and talk more about the role of “play”. |
10:40 | Wearable technology for healthy aging: from health regulation to self regulation? |
| Dr. Matthijs Noordzij University of Twente, Department of Psychology, Health and Technology |
| Abstract: Wearable technology, such as smart watches and activity trackers (but also smartphones), is central to many ideas on how elderly citizens can lead longer and healthier lives, while staying in their own homes. These wearables provide remote caretakers and family members important and continuous information about the health status and potential critical incidents (e.g. falls). Many of these wearables contain a multitude of sensors, which at present are utilized to track medical information such as potential heart failures from data of the heart rate sensors. Interestingly, this type of data (in combination with other sensor data or self-reported context information) could also play a role in tracking mental phenomena. Next to physical disability, old age is also often associated with an increase in mental problems such as depression, and less severe, a significant decrease in wellbeing and positive affect. In the present talk, opportunities will be discussed that come from current studies on the design of real time, emotional (bio) feedback from wearable technology for self-regulation in young people with emotional problems (i.e. aggression, borderline personality disorder). On the one hand, it could be that these opportunities come from flipping the goal of these solutions from downregulating emotional arousal, to up regulating emotional arousal in the old. On the other hand, it might that some problems are quite similar for the old and the young where strong emotions associated with for example certain levels of cognitive decline can be better managed with the help of just in time warnings in case of excessive fluctuations in physiological arousal. |
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11:00 | An holistic approach to support Active and Healthy Ageing in everyday life |
| Prof. Hermie Hermens University of Twente, Telemedicine group Roessingh Research and Development, Director of Telemedicine cluster |
| Abstract: In this presentation prof. Hermie Hermens will present several projects on the topic of Active and Healthy Ageing in which he has collaborated within Roessingh Research and Development and University of Twente. |
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12:30 | PhD Defense of Miriam Cabrita on Active and Pleasant Ageing supported by Technology |
