JMIR Aging

Sociodemographic variables may impact decision making regarding safety measures. The use and selection of adequate face masks is a safety and health measure that could help minimize the spread of COVID-19 infection.

Numerous living labs have established a new approach for studying the health, independent living, and well-being of older adults with dementia. Living labs interact with a broad set of stakeholders, including students, academic institutions, private companies, health care organizations, and patient representative bodies and even with other living labs. Hence, it is crucial to identify the types of cocreations that should be attempted and how they can be facilitated through living labs.

As life expectancy grows, so do the challenges of caring for an aging population. Older adults, including people with dementia, want to live independently and feel in control of their lives for as long as possible. Assistive technologies powered by artificial intelligence and internet of things devices are being proposed to provide living environments that support the users’ safety, psychological, and medical needs through remote monitoring and interventions.

Barriers to assessing depression in advanced dementia include the presence of informant and patient recall biases. Ecological momentary assessment provides an improved approach for mood assessment by collecting observations in intervals throughout the day, decreasing recall bias, and increasing ecological validity.

Smartwatches enable physicians to monitor symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis, their behavior, and their environment. Older adults experience fluctuations in their pain and related symptoms (mood, fatigue, and sleep quality) that smartwatches are ideally suited to capture remotely in a convenient manner.

A disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases affect older, minority populations. Obese older adults are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 complications and lower survival rates, and minority older adults often experience higher rates of obesity. A plant-based diet intervention may improve COVID-19-related modifiable risk factors for obesity. Encouraging the consumption of plant-based diets comprising vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts by utilizing community outreach strategies and digital technology can contribute to improving COVID-19 risk factors among this population.

Falling is one of the most common and serious age-related issues, and falls can significantly impair the quality of life of older adults. Approximately one-third of people over 65 experience a fall annually. Previous research has shown that physical exercise could help reduce falls among older adults and improve their health. However, older adults often find it challenging to follow and adhere to physical exercise programs. Interventions using mixed reality (MR) technology could help address these issues. MR combines artificial augmented computer-generated elements with the real world. It has frequently been used for training and rehabilitation purposes.

Many informal caregivers of older adults have limited time because of the number of responsibilities that their caregiving role entails. This population often experiences high levels of burden due to the stressful nature of their work and are vulnerable to developing negative psychological health outcomes. Easily accessible and flexible knowledge interventions are needed to alleviate the burden and stress experienced by this group.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a challenge to people’s day-to-day functioning and emotional and physical health, especially among older adults.

In academic research contexts, eHealth interventions for caregivers of people with dementia have shown ample evidence of effectiveness. However, they are rarely implemented in practice, and much can be learned from their counterparts (commercial, governmental, or other origins) that are already being used in practice.

Older people’s use of the internet is increasingly coming into focus with the demographic changes of a growing older population. Research reports several benefits of older people’s internet use and highlights problems such as various forms of inequality in use within the group. There is a need for consistent measurements to follow the development and use of the internet in this group and to be able to compare groups both within and between countries, as well as follow the changes over time.

Previous work documented the beneficial association between internet use and improved cognition, functional capacity, and less cognitive decline among people in late adulthood. This work focused on potential mechanisms of such an association: knowledge on Alzheimer disease (AD) and preventive behaviors related to AD.