E-Textiles for Healthy Ageing
1
Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
2
School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2019, 19(20), 4463; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19204463
Received: 26 July 2019 / Revised: 4 October 2019 / Accepted: 8 October 2019 / Published: 15 October 2019
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
The ageing population has grown quickly in the last half century with increased longevity and declining birth rate. This presents challenges to health services and the wider society. This review paper considers different aspects (e.g., physical, mental, and social well-being) of healthy ageing and how health devices can help people to monitor health conditions, treat diseases and promote social interactions. Existing technologies for addressing non-physical (e.g., Alzheimer’s, loneliness) and physical (e.g., stroke, bedsores, and fall) related challenges are presented together with the drivers and constraints of using e-textiles for these applications. E-textiles provide a platform that enables unobtrusive and ubiquitous deployment of sensors and actuators for healthy ageing applications. However, constraints remain on battery, integration, data accuracy, manufacturing, durability, ethics/privacy issues, and regulations. These challenges can only effectively be met by interdisciplinary teams sharing expertise and methods, and involving end users and other key stakeholders at an early stage in the research.
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Keywords:
healthy ageing; e-textiles; wearable devices; disease and disability; sensors; actuators; rehabilitation
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Yang, K.; Isaia, B.; Brown, L.J.E.; Beeby, S. E-Textiles for Healthy Ageing. Sensors 2019, 19, 4463. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19204463
AMA Style
Yang K, Isaia B, Brown LJE, Beeby S. E-Textiles for Healthy Ageing. Sensors. 2019; 19(20):4463. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19204463
Chicago/Turabian StyleYang, Kai; Isaia, Beckie; Brown, Laura J.E.; Beeby, Steve. 2019. "E-Textiles for Healthy Ageing" Sensors 19, no. 20: 4463. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19204463
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