DigiHEALTH: Suite of Digital Solutions for Long-Term Healthy and Active Aging

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jun 22;20(13):6200. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20136200.

Abstract

The population in the world is aging dramatically, and therefore, the economic and social effort required to maintain the quality of life is being increased. Assistive technologies are progressively expanding and present great opportunities; however, given the sensitivity of health issues and the vulnerability of older adults, some considerations need to be considered. This paper presents DigiHEALTH, a suite of digital solutions for long-term healthy and active aging. It is the result of a fruitful trajectory of research in healthy aging where we have understood stakeholders' needs, defined the main suite properties (that would allow scalability and interoperability with health services), and codesigned a set of digital solutions by applying a continuous reflexive cycle. At the current stage of development, the digital suite presents eight digital solutions to carry out the following: (a) minimize digital barriers for older adults (authentication system based on face recognition and digital voice assistant), (b) facilitate active and healthy living (well-being assessment module, recommendation system, and personalized nutritional system), and (c) mitigate specific impairments (heart failure decompensation, mobility assessment and correction, and orofacial gesture trainer). The suite is available online and it includes specific details in terms of technology readiness level and specific conditions for usage and acquisition. This live website will be continually updated and enriched with more digital solutions and further experiences of collaboration.

Keywords: active aging; digital solutions; face recognition; gait analysis; healthy lifestyle; older adults; recommendation system; risk prediction; voice assistant; well-being assessment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Quality of Life*
  • Self-Help Devices*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by several research projects. We acknowledge the funding received by SHAPES-Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems H2020 project (857159). We acknowledge Basque Government for the funding received along several research projects: NutriGEP (Hazitek 2019), ORKESTA (Hazitek Estrategico 2019), INCAR (Hazitek 2016), etc.