International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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14 pages, 1717 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Agent Interaction to Assist Visually-Impaired and Elderly People

by Juliana Damasio Oliveira, Debora C. Engelmann, Davi Kniest, Renata Vieira and Rafael H. Bordini

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 8945; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19158945 - 22 Jul 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1803

Abstract

A voice-controlled smart home system based on conversational agents can address the specific needs of older people, proactively providing support, compensating for cognitive decline, and coping with solitude, among other features. In particular, Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) platforms provide considerable support for complex adaptive [...] Read more.

A voice-controlled smart home system based on conversational agents can address the specific needs of older people, proactively providing support, compensating for cognitive decline, and coping with solitude, among other features. In particular, Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) platforms provide considerable support for complex adaptive systems that are naturally distributed and situated in dynamic environments, such as Ambient intelligence (AmI) applications. Such autonomous intelligent agents are capable of independent reasoning and joint analysis of complex situations to support high-level interaction with humans, besides providing typical characteristics of MAS, such as cooperation and coordinated action. In this context, we developed an approach using a MAS previously evaluated for visually impaired users, where most of the system’s functionalities are also helpful for the elderly. Our methodology is based on the four steps of the interactive design process. As a result, we determined that our approach has elements that allow for natural interaction with users, and we identified and discussed improvements and new features for future work. We believe that our findings can point to directions for building AmI systems that are capable of more natural interaction with users. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

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25 pages, 3528 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identifying and Addressing Implicit Ageism in the Co-Design of Services for Aging People

by Elena Comincioli, Eemeli Hakoköngäs and Masood Masoodian

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(13), 7667; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137667 - 23 Jun 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2730

Abstract

In a world with an increasingly aging population, design researchers and practitioners can play an essential role in shaping better future societies, by designing environments, tools, and services that positively influence older adults’ everyday experiences. The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed a [...] Read more.

In a world with an increasingly aging population, design researchers and practitioners can play an essential role in shaping better future societies, by designing environments, tools, and services that positively influence older adults’ everyday experiences. The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed a framework called Healthy Ageing, which can be adopted as the basis for designing for an aging society. There are, however, many challenges in achieving this goal. This article addresses one of these challenges identified by WHO, which is overcoming ageism as a form of discrimination based on age. In contrast with most other types of discrimination, ageism is not always easy to detect and overcome because of its generally implicit nature. This paper investigates adopting storytelling as a method for detecting implicit ageism and proposes a co-design process that utilizes this method to better address older adults’ needs and requirements. The use of this method is discussed through two example case studies aimed at improving the design of assistive services and technologies for aging people. The findings from these case studies indicate that the proposed method can help co-design teams better identify possible implicit ageist biases and, by doing so, try to overcome them in the design process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

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16 pages, 574 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Cognitive, Behavioral and Interpersonal Impacts of Virtual Practice with Short Health Videos on Chinese Ageing Women: A Discursive Approach

by Hongyan Liang and Huimin Pang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(12), 7173; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127173 - 11 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1841

Abstract

In the digital era, the health information presented on virtual platforms plays a pivotal role in supporting people’s active and healthy life. The ageing, especially ageing women, are more likely to seek and accept health information through online media platforms. The study shows [...] Read more.

In the digital era, the health information presented on virtual platforms plays a pivotal role in supporting people’s active and healthy life. The ageing, especially ageing women, are more likely to seek and accept health information through online media platforms. The study shows that short health videos on social media platforms are extremely popular among ageing women in China for the accessing of virtual coaching. Adopting the qualitative methodology of in-depth interview and discourse analysis, the study investigates virtual coaching with short health video practice among 39 Chinese ageing women in different fields, who are all over sixty years old. Specifically, with the analytical tools of transitivity and generic structure analysis, the study explores the impacts of short health videos on Chinese ageing women’s cognition, behavior and interpersonal relationships. The result shows that virtual practice and coaching via short health videos can build health awareness and a dynamic new lifestyle, and motivate women to positively practice physical activity and maintain positive interpersonal relationships. Factors affecting the effectiveness of short health videos are discussed for future research in the field of modeling and intervention. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

15 pages, 2803 KiB

Open AccessArticle

eHealth Engagement on Facebook during COVID-19: Simplistic Computational Data Analysis

by Caroll Hermann and Melanie Govender

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(8), 4615; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084615 - 12 Apr 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1996

Abstract

Understanding social media networks and group interactions is crucial to the advancement of linguistic and cultural behavior. This includes how people accessed advice on health during COVID-19 lockdown. Some people turned to social media to access information on health when other routes were [...] Read more.

Understanding social media networks and group interactions is crucial to the advancement of linguistic and cultural behavior. This includes how people accessed advice on health during COVID-19 lockdown. Some people turned to social media to access information on health when other routes were curtailed by isolation rules, particularly among older generations. Facebook public pages, groups and verified profiles using keywords “senior citizen health”, “older generations”, and “healthy living” were analyzed over a 12-month period to examine engagement with social media promoting good mental health. CrowdTangle was used to source status updates, photo and video sharing information in the English language, which resulted in an initial 116,321 posts and 6,462,065 interactions. Data analysis and visualization were used to explore large datasets, including natural language processing for “message” content discovery, word frequency and correlational analysis as well as co-word clustering. Preliminary results indicate strong links to healthy aging information shared on social media, which showed correlations to global daily confirmed cases and daily deaths. The results can identify public concerns early on and address mental health issues among senior citizens on Facebook. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

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11 pages, 522 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Aging Adults’ Motivation to Use Embodied Conversational Agents in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living: Results of Latent Profile Analysis

by Urška Smrke, Nejc Plohl and Izidor Mlakar

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2373; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042373 - 18 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1742

Abstract

The rapidly increasing share of ageing adults in the population drives the need and interest in assistive technology, as it has the potential to support ageing individuals in living independently and safely. However, technological development rarely reflects how needs, preferences, and interests develop [...] Read more.

The rapidly increasing share of ageing adults in the population drives the need and interest in assistive technology, as it has the potential to support ageing individuals in living independently and safely. However, technological development rarely reflects how needs, preferences, and interests develop in different ways while ageing. It often follows the strategy of “what is possible” rather than “what is needed” and “what preferred”. As part of personalized assistive technology, embodied conversational agents (ECAs) can offer mechanisms to adapt the technological advances with the stakeholders’ expectations. The present study explored the motivation among ageing adults regarding technology use in multiple domains of activities of daily living. Participants responded to the questionnaire on the perceived importance of instrumental activities of daily living and acceptance of the idea of using ECAs to support them. Latent profile analysis revealed four profiles regarding the motivation to use ECAs (i.e., a low motivation profile, two selective motivation profiles with an emphasis on physical and psychological well-being, and a high motivation profile). Profiles were compared in terms of their acceptance of ECA usage in various life domains. The results increase the knowledge needed in the development of assistive technology adapted to the expectations of ageing adults. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

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24 pages, 1869 KiB

Open AccessArticle

User Requirements Analysis of an Embodied Conversational Agent for Coaching Older Adults to Choose Active and Healthy Ageing Behaviors during the Transition to Retirement: A Cross-National User Centered Design Study

by Sara Santini, Vera Stara, Flavia Galassi, Alessandra Merizzi, Cornelia Schneider, Sabine Schwammer, Elske Stolte and Johannes Kropf

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(18), 9681; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189681 - 14 Sep 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3550

Abstract

Background: Retirement is recognized as a factor influencing the ageing process. Today, virtual health coaching systems can play a pivotal role in supporting older adults’ active and healthy ageing. This study wants to answer two research questions: (1) What are the user requirements [...] Read more.

Background: Retirement is recognized as a factor influencing the ageing process. Today, virtual health coaching systems can play a pivotal role in supporting older adults’ active and healthy ageing. This study wants to answer two research questions: (1) What are the user requirements of a virtual coach (VC) based on an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) for motivating older adults in transition to retirement to adopt a healthy lifestyle? (2) How could a VC address the active and healthy ageing dimensions, even during COVID-19 times? Methods: Two-wave focus-groups with 60 end-users aged 55 and over and 27 follow-up telephone interviews were carried out in Austria, Italy and the Netherlands in 2019–2020. Qualitative data were analysed by way of framework analysis. Results: End-users suggest the VC should motivate older workers and retirees to practice physical activity, maintain social contacts and emotional well-being. The ECA should be reactive, customizable, expressive, sympathetic, not directive nor patronizing, with a pleasant and motivating language. The COVID-19 outbreak increased the users’ need for functions boosting community relationships and promoting emotional well-being. Conclusions: the VC can address the active and healthy ageing paradigm by increasing the chances of doing low-cost healthy activities at any time and in any place. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

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24 pages, 3596 KiB

Open AccessArticle

User Centered Virtual Coaching for Older Adults at Home Using SMART Goal Plans and I-Change Model

by Andoni Beristain Iraola, Roberto Álvarez Sánchez, Santiago Hors-Fraile, Despoina Petsani, Michail Timoleon, Unai Díaz-Orueta, Joanne Carroll, Louise Hopper, Gorka Epelde, Jon Kerexeta, Panagiotis D. Bamidis and Evdokimos I. Konstantinidis

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(13), 6868; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136868 - 26 Jun 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4672 | Correction

Abstract

Preventive care and telemedicine are expected to play an important role in reducing the impact of an increasingly aging global population while increasing the number of healthy years. Virtual coaching is a promising research area to support this process. This paper presents a [...] Read more.

Preventive care and telemedicine are expected to play an important role in reducing the impact of an increasingly aging global population while increasing the number of healthy years. Virtual coaching is a promising research area to support this process. This paper presents a user-centered virtual coach for older adults at home to promote active and healthy aging and independent living. It supports behavior change processes for improving on cognitive, physical, social interaction and nutrition areas using specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-limited (SMART) goal plans, following the I-Change behavioral change model. Older adults select and personalize which goal plans to join from a catalog designed by domain experts. Intervention delivery adapts to user preferences and minimizes intrusiveness in the user’s daily living using a combination of a deterministic algorithm and incremental machine learning model. The home becomes an augmented reality environment, using a combination of projectors, cameras, microphones and support sensors, where common objects are used for projection and sensed. Older adults interact with this virtual coach in their home in a natural way using speech and body gestures on projected user interfaces with common objects at home. This paper presents the concept from the older adult and the caregiver perspectives. Then, it focuses on the older adult view, describing the tools and processes available to foster a positive behavior change process, including a discussion about the limitations of the current implementation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

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1 pages, 271 KiB

Open AccessCorrection

Correction: Beristain Iraola et al. User Centered Virtual Coaching for Older Adults at Home Using SMART Goal Plans and I-Change Model. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 6868

by Andoni Beristain Iraola, Roberto Álvarez Sánchez, Santiago Hors-Fraile, Despoina Petsani, Michail Timoleon, Unai Díaz-Orueta, Joanne Carroll, Louise Hopper, Gorka Epelde, Jon Kerexeta, Panagiotis D. Bamidis and Evdokimos I. Konstantinidis

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2116; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042116 - 14 Feb 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1370

Abstract

The author would like to change the authorship in the previous publication [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue E-health for Active Ageing)

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