Evaluation of a home-based connected product ecosystem for tracking falls in senior adults

Date

2024-1-18

Author

Usta, Ceren

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Fall is a significant problem for senior adults that can lead to serious consequences such as injury, loss of consciousness, and even death. Especially in cases where falls occur at home, senior adults have difficulty communicating with emergency medical professionals or their caregivers, who support them in their daily lives. To solve this problem, the home-based connected product ecosystem is promising to allow stakeholders to interact with each other through products for both managing the event of a fall and mitigating fall risk factors. This study aimed to develop solutions for both managing the moment of falling and reducing fall risk factors, taking into account possible communication flows between senior adults, caregivers, and emergency medical professionals. For this reason, a study was conducted with the participation of eight senior adults and eight caregivers in pairs. In addition, another study was conducted with EMTs and paramedics to better investigate the communication flow between senior adults and stakeholders in emergency situations. In the event of a fall that results in severe outcomes, it was discovered that there is a crucial communication flow between senior adults and emergency medical professionals, or caregivers. Another communication flow was determined to be a daily communication flow. As a result of study, the potential use of product ecosystems and findings about how to improve them in order to allow caregivers to monitor the health data of senior adults and ensure the safety of their loved ones were explained.

Subject Keywords

Home-based health tracking, Fall management, Product-service design, Senior adults, Fall prevention

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/108345

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis