JMIR Aging

Older people are the highest users of health services but are less likely to use a patient portal than younger people.

Assessing cognitive constructs affected by Alzheimer disease, such as processing speed (PS), is important to screen for potential disease and allow for early detection. Digital PS assessments have been developed to provide widespread, efficient cognitive testing, but all have been validated only based on the correlation between test scores. Best statistical practices dictate that concurrent validity should be assessed for agreement or equivalence rather than using correlation alone.

COVID-19 has had an impact on physical activity (PA) among older adults; however, it is unclear whether this effect would be long-lasting, and there is a dearth of studies assessing the changes in barriers to performing PA among older adults before and after entering the “postpandemic era.”

Amid a worldwide pandemic in the setting of an era of rapidly developing technologies, we turn now to the novel and exciting endeavor of pioneering the metaverse. Described as the conglomeration of augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, the metaverse has widespread applications in multiple settings, including revolutionizing health care. It also holds the potential to transform geriatric medicine, introducing new dimensions through which we can prevent social isolation, encourage health and well-being, and offer a new dimension through which we manage chronic disease. Although it is still a futuristic and novel technology, the metaverse’s realization may indeed be closer than we think.

The increased use of wearable sensor technology has highlighted the potential for remote telehealth services such as rehabilitation. Telehealth services incorporating wearable sensors are most likely to appeal to the older adult population in remote and rural areas, who may struggle with long commutes to clinics. However, the usability of such systems often discourages patients from adopting these services.

Older adults with disabilities such as loss of autonomy face the decision of whether to stay at home or move to a health care facility such as a nursing home. Therefore, they may need support for this difficult decision.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, opportunities for social interaction and physical activity among older people are decreasing, which may have a negative impact on their health. As a solution, a web-based group exercise program provided through a videoconferencing platform would be useful. As a web-based exercise program that older adults can easily, safely, and enjoyably perform at home, we developed a short-duration, light-intensity aerobic dance exercise program. Before studying the effectiveness of this exercise program, its characteristics, such as feasibility, safety, enjoyment, and system usability, should be examined among older adults.

Virtual reality (VR) is a promising and cost-effective tool that has the potential to reduce the prevalence of falls and locomotor impairments in older adults. However, we believe that existing VR-based approaches to prevent falls do not mimic the full breadth of perceptual, cognitive, and motor demands that older adults encounter in daily life. Researchers have not yet fully leveraged VR to address affective factors related to fall risk, and how stressors such as anxiety influence older adult balance and real-world falls. In this perspective paper, we propose developing VR-based tools that replicate the affective demands of real-world falls (eg, crossing the street) to enhance fall prevention diagnostics and interventions by capturing the underlying processes that influence everyday mobility. An effort to replicate realistic scenarios that precipitate falls in VR environments will inform evidence-based diagnostics and individualize interventions in a way that could reduce falls in older adults in daily life.

There is a compelling need for an innovative and creative approach to promote social connectedness among older adults to optimize their well-being and quality of life. One possible solution may be through a digital intergenerational program.

Two fields of research and development targeting the needs of the aging population of the world are flourishing, successful aging and assistive information and communication technologies (A-ICTs). The risks of ageist stereotypes emerging from how we communicate in both discourses are long known. This raises questions about whether using specific age criteria in the context of “aging deficits” can bias participation in, or compliance with, the research process by older adults who try to avoid age-related stigma.

Care partners of people living with dementia may benefit from web-based education. We developed iGeriCare, an award-winning internet-based platform with 12 multimedia e-learning lessons about dementia.

Dual-task training is an emerging field used for people with Parkinson disease (PD) to improve their physical and cognitive well-being, but the patients’ acceptability, safety, and adherence to such training in online settings are unknown.