Combined Multicomponent Interventions for Older Adults in a Smart Home Living Lab

Research indicates the additive effects and interrelation of physical exercise and cognitive training towards cognition maintenance and physical performance in older adults. Combined physical and cognitive interventions enabled by eHealth technologies, web applications and wearable sensors hold a great potential for the improvement of physical and cognitive status of older adults. Living laboratory strategies and mechanisms are considered effective spaces for the implementation of interventions for cognitive and/or physical training. In order to holistically capture the opportunities of the living lab environment, a feasibility study entitled “Use of nZEB Smart Home services as a controlled lab environment to guide real life case studies of older adults”, has been conducted in the rapid prototyping and novel technologies’ demonstration infrastructure of nZEB smart home of Information Technologies Institute (ITI). The cognitive performance and physical function of 18 users ranging from 55 years old to 70 healthy adults has been assessed in interrelation to measure the significant impact of a holistic approach in lab-based interventions. The study design methods included a) physiological monitoring during exercise, b) balance distribution assessment, c) EEG measurements during Meditation task and d) activities of daily living execution using a Banking transaction and a Virtual Supermarket web application. The feasibility study was successful in incorporating and combining various hardware and software solutions in exercise and meditation tasks as well as in simulations of everyday activities of the participants. Processes and significant insights are presented in a preliminary analysis of the collected data.