Assessment of Activities of Daily Living Via a Smart Home Environment

AbstractActivities of Daily Living (ADL) has become a clinical de facto instrument to assess older people’s daily functional status living independently at home. This chapter focuses on a ‘smart home environment’ that contributes to the individual’s QoL and leverages a novel objective ADL assessment technology embedded in the home. This objective ADL (OADL) assessment is achieved through fusing data from simple, non-intrusive, always-on, wireless sensors placed in a home environment. To evaluate the OADL in older people, we conducted a 10-month pilot study with five eligible participants between 79 and 88 years old. In each participant’s home, we installed a smart home system. We presented OADL assessment to participants daily through a tablet app for self-management and caregivers through a web portal for decision-making. We then compare the similarity between OADL assessment and traditional self-reported Barthel ADL from participants. Initial study results demonstrated the great potential of the OADL as an effective daily functional status index and management instrument for caregivers to support beloved ones remotely and enable timely and early interventions when necessary. This chapter presents state of art in that domain and reflects on other design implications for a home environment, facilitating better health and life quality in the long term.