Presentation
DH3 - Artificial Intelligence for Older Adults: A Literature Survey on AI as an Aid for Independent Living
SessionPoster Session 1
DescriptionIntroduction and Aims
Today, approximately one quarter of adults above the age of 60 live independently according to the Project of Art & Healing (2018). With the Baby Boomer generation currently belonging to this category and Generation X (born 1965-1980) reaching the age milestone in the very near future, sophisticated technologies are easier to integrate into the daily lives of the older adults for improving the quality of life and health resilience of the population. A highly anticipated such technology is Artificial Intelligence, with its wide-reaching applications also including health resilience among older adults. This literature search focused on the current AI based technologies and their categorization to improve health resilience and the easiness of daily routines that can contribute to the lives of older adults who are living independently. The independent literature search conducted aimed at determining the current and potential future of AI technologies with a strong human factors emphasis on the lives of independently living older adults. Twelve databases were searched with the top five keywords being: Artificial intelligence, older adults, healthcare, daily routines, and health resilience.
Artificial Intelligence for Older Adults
Due to the relatively recent big advancements in the AI field, the literature survey primarily focused on articles in the field that were published between 2020 and 2024. The literate so far has been analyzed and the following categories have been determined in the current and potential practical AI use for the benefit of independently living older adults:
Aid to improve life routines: Older adults’ daily routines such as getting off the bed, eating, bathing, etc. while living independently are assisted by AI-integrated systems in the form of computers, mobile and wearables devices, and/or robotics (mentioned in 26 articles).
Aid to improve health capabilities: AI assists older adults with daily health routines and capabilities such as taking their mediations, moving a certain amount every day, going to the bathroom regularly, etc. by reminders and other means as well as confirmation of their completion (mentioned in 31 articles).
Emergency detection and help: Falls, seizures, strokes and other emergencies are detected precisely and acted upon by AI-integrated health systems with sensors (mentioned in 34 articles).
Fight dementia and cognitive decline-related problems: Older adults are aided by AI through social interactions targeting memory decline and other ailments that can be slowed down via conversational and visual interactions (mentioned in 19 articles).
Preventive health issues: AI focuses on preventing health deterioration and adverse health events such as taking action when high blood pressure or instability in movement is detected (mentioned in 23 articles).
Sample Application Areas of AI in the Daily Lives of Older Adults
Newer technologies developed by leading companies, nonprofit institutions and academic outlets are already having a major role in monitoring, detecting issues, and offering solutions in independent living for the elderly (Capodieci et al., 2018). Roosan (2020) et al. indicated that with the increasing prevalence of AI, medication interactions can be improved using a system that reminds adults to take their medications in a way that is more complete than a simple reminder, and these systems can work as a personalized provider for medication information which can result in higher adherence rates. This study alone shows the potential that AI systems shows in improving the lives and medical standings of older adults when designed based on human factors rules and guidelines. Additionally, Yoo (2020) showed immense interest among older adults to use AI in their daily lives as a speaking companion helping them in their routines with the ultimate goal of reaching better quality of life. Yang et al. (2021) saw AI as an education and training tool to improve lives and human conditions, proposing Human-Centered AI (HAI). Qian et al. (2021) indicated the importance of providing technology aids for older adults in both developed and developing countries, and produced a framework to improve the visual and auditory capabilities of older adults using AI. Yuan et al.’s (2020) study, while comparatively older, indicated the importance of AI interventions in facilitation and prevention of issues including disease, quality of life and sleep, brain injury, dementia and cancer. A feasibility study by Kang et al. (2021) found that the Internet of Things is a suitable platform for adults aged 65 and older to be used as an AI platform to help with their health care, with sensors and smart sensors being able to better understand the nature of falls, ailments and other anomalies with the help of newer AI systems and acting and alerting accordingly. Their study also proposes the interfacing of mobile robots to the AI-supported IoT systems for better effectiveness in saving lives. According to Alharbi et al. (2023), smart fall detection systems could be developed by integrating RFID detectors into the carpet and combined with AI and IoT to detect fall severity among independently living older adults, with almost 99% accuracy. Similarly, in their conceptual framework, Onthoni et al. (2022) focused on a smart home concept with the main components of accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, global positioning system, motion and temperature tracker outputs, where AI could recognize the type of action or the activity the older adult was engaged in with high accuracy and have the smart home system accordingly while also alerting for emergencies.
The sample above from the literature survey demonstrates tremendous potential for AI to be integrated as a daily routine-specific as well as health care-specific tool in a total of five categories. The next step is to determine user attitudes towards the integration of such AI technologies into the lives of older adults in an experimental study. This literature survey proved that AI technologies to improve the daily routine-related and healthcare-related tasks of older adults is highly promising to improve the quality and span of life for older adults in independent living.
Alharbi, Hatem A., Khulud K. Alharbi, and Ch Anwar Ul Hassan. "Enhancing elderly fall detection through IoT-enabled smart flooring and AI for independent living sustainability." Sustainability 15.22 (2023): 15695.
Capodieci, Antonio, Luca Mainetti, and Paolo Panarese. "Ambient assisted living for elderly people using smart personal assistants." 2018 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI). IEEE, 2018.
Yoo, Hyun-Sil, Eung-Kyo Suh, and Tae-Hyung Kim. "A study on technology acceptance of elderly living alone in smart city environment: Based on AI speaker." The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 11.2 (2020): 41-48.
Yuan, Fei, Kumiko Miyazaki, and Santiago Ruiz-Navas. "An empirical analysis of AI related scientific knowledge and technologies to support elderly independent living." Journal of STI Policy and Management 6.2 (2021): 119-129.
Kang, Minsoo, et al. "A Study on the Feasibility of IoT and AI-based elderly care system application." Korea Journal of Artificial Intelligence 9.2 (2021): 15-21.
Onthoni, Djeane Debora, and Prasan Kumar Sahoo. "Artificial-intelligence-assisted activities of daily living recognition for elderly in smart home." Electronics 11.24 (2022): 4129.
Roosan, Don, et al. "Artificial intelligence–powered smartphone app to facilitate medication adherence: protocol for a human factors design study." JMIR Research Protocols 9.11 (2020): e21659.
The Foundation of Art & Healing: Fact Sheet: Loneliness and Older Adults. April 23, 2018, Last Visited: October 7, 2024. Older Adults Loneliness Fact Sheet - The Foundation for Art & Healing (artandhealing.org)
Yang, Stephen JH, et al. "Human-centered artificial intelligence in education: Seeing the invisible through the visible." Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence 2 (2021): 100008.
Today, approximately one quarter of adults above the age of 60 live independently according to the Project of Art & Healing (2018). With the Baby Boomer generation currently belonging to this category and Generation X (born 1965-1980) reaching the age milestone in the very near future, sophisticated technologies are easier to integrate into the daily lives of the older adults for improving the quality of life and health resilience of the population. A highly anticipated such technology is Artificial Intelligence, with its wide-reaching applications also including health resilience among older adults. This literature search focused on the current AI based technologies and their categorization to improve health resilience and the easiness of daily routines that can contribute to the lives of older adults who are living independently. The independent literature search conducted aimed at determining the current and potential future of AI technologies with a strong human factors emphasis on the lives of independently living older adults. Twelve databases were searched with the top five keywords being: Artificial intelligence, older adults, healthcare, daily routines, and health resilience.
Artificial Intelligence for Older Adults
Due to the relatively recent big advancements in the AI field, the literature survey primarily focused on articles in the field that were published between 2020 and 2024. The literate so far has been analyzed and the following categories have been determined in the current and potential practical AI use for the benefit of independently living older adults:
Aid to improve life routines: Older adults’ daily routines such as getting off the bed, eating, bathing, etc. while living independently are assisted by AI-integrated systems in the form of computers, mobile and wearables devices, and/or robotics (mentioned in 26 articles).
Aid to improve health capabilities: AI assists older adults with daily health routines and capabilities such as taking their mediations, moving a certain amount every day, going to the bathroom regularly, etc. by reminders and other means as well as confirmation of their completion (mentioned in 31 articles).
Emergency detection and help: Falls, seizures, strokes and other emergencies are detected precisely and acted upon by AI-integrated health systems with sensors (mentioned in 34 articles).
Fight dementia and cognitive decline-related problems: Older adults are aided by AI through social interactions targeting memory decline and other ailments that can be slowed down via conversational and visual interactions (mentioned in 19 articles).
Preventive health issues: AI focuses on preventing health deterioration and adverse health events such as taking action when high blood pressure or instability in movement is detected (mentioned in 23 articles).
Sample Application Areas of AI in the Daily Lives of Older Adults
Newer technologies developed by leading companies, nonprofit institutions and academic outlets are already having a major role in monitoring, detecting issues, and offering solutions in independent living for the elderly (Capodieci et al., 2018). Roosan (2020) et al. indicated that with the increasing prevalence of AI, medication interactions can be improved using a system that reminds adults to take their medications in a way that is more complete than a simple reminder, and these systems can work as a personalized provider for medication information which can result in higher adherence rates. This study alone shows the potential that AI systems shows in improving the lives and medical standings of older adults when designed based on human factors rules and guidelines. Additionally, Yoo (2020) showed immense interest among older adults to use AI in their daily lives as a speaking companion helping them in their routines with the ultimate goal of reaching better quality of life. Yang et al. (2021) saw AI as an education and training tool to improve lives and human conditions, proposing Human-Centered AI (HAI). Qian et al. (2021) indicated the importance of providing technology aids for older adults in both developed and developing countries, and produced a framework to improve the visual and auditory capabilities of older adults using AI. Yuan et al.’s (2020) study, while comparatively older, indicated the importance of AI interventions in facilitation and prevention of issues including disease, quality of life and sleep, brain injury, dementia and cancer. A feasibility study by Kang et al. (2021) found that the Internet of Things is a suitable platform for adults aged 65 and older to be used as an AI platform to help with their health care, with sensors and smart sensors being able to better understand the nature of falls, ailments and other anomalies with the help of newer AI systems and acting and alerting accordingly. Their study also proposes the interfacing of mobile robots to the AI-supported IoT systems for better effectiveness in saving lives. According to Alharbi et al. (2023), smart fall detection systems could be developed by integrating RFID detectors into the carpet and combined with AI and IoT to detect fall severity among independently living older adults, with almost 99% accuracy. Similarly, in their conceptual framework, Onthoni et al. (2022) focused on a smart home concept with the main components of accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, global positioning system, motion and temperature tracker outputs, where AI could recognize the type of action or the activity the older adult was engaged in with high accuracy and have the smart home system accordingly while also alerting for emergencies.
The sample above from the literature survey demonstrates tremendous potential for AI to be integrated as a daily routine-specific as well as health care-specific tool in a total of five categories. The next step is to determine user attitudes towards the integration of such AI technologies into the lives of older adults in an experimental study. This literature survey proved that AI technologies to improve the daily routine-related and healthcare-related tasks of older adults is highly promising to improve the quality and span of life for older adults in independent living.
Alharbi, Hatem A., Khulud K. Alharbi, and Ch Anwar Ul Hassan. "Enhancing elderly fall detection through IoT-enabled smart flooring and AI for independent living sustainability." Sustainability 15.22 (2023): 15695.
Capodieci, Antonio, Luca Mainetti, and Paolo Panarese. "Ambient assisted living for elderly people using smart personal assistants." 2018 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI). IEEE, 2018.
Yoo, Hyun-Sil, Eung-Kyo Suh, and Tae-Hyung Kim. "A study on technology acceptance of elderly living alone in smart city environment: Based on AI speaker." The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business 11.2 (2020): 41-48.
Yuan, Fei, Kumiko Miyazaki, and Santiago Ruiz-Navas. "An empirical analysis of AI related scientific knowledge and technologies to support elderly independent living." Journal of STI Policy and Management 6.2 (2021): 119-129.
Kang, Minsoo, et al. "A Study on the Feasibility of IoT and AI-based elderly care system application." Korea Journal of Artificial Intelligence 9.2 (2021): 15-21.
Onthoni, Djeane Debora, and Prasan Kumar Sahoo. "Artificial-intelligence-assisted activities of daily living recognition for elderly in smart home." Electronics 11.24 (2022): 4129.
Roosan, Don, et al. "Artificial intelligence–powered smartphone app to facilitate medication adherence: protocol for a human factors design study." JMIR Research Protocols 9.11 (2020): e21659.
The Foundation of Art & Healing: Fact Sheet: Loneliness and Older Adults. April 23, 2018, Last Visited: October 7, 2024. Older Adults Loneliness Fact Sheet - The Foundation for Art & Healing (artandhealing.org)
Yang, Stephen JH, et al. "Human-centered artificial intelligence in education: Seeing the invisible through the visible." Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence 2 (2021): 100008.
Event Type
Poster Presentation
TimeMonday, March 314:45pm - 6:15pm EDT
LocationFrontenac Foyer
Digital Health (DH)
Simulation and Education (SE)
Hospital Environments (HE)
Medical and Drug Delivery Devices (MDD)
Patient Safety and Research Initiatives (PS)