My-active and healthy ageing (My-AHA): An ICT platform to detect frailty risk and propose intervention

Abstract

Stemming from a holistic view of interrelated frailties, cognitive decline, physical frailty, depression and anxiety, social isolation and poor sleep quality, My-AHA proposes an ICT platform for early detection of pre-frailty and intervention to sustain active and healthy ageing and slowing or reversing further decline. The main aim of My-AHA is to reduce frailty risk by improving physical activity and cognitive function, psychological state, social resources, nutrition, sleep and overall well-being in older adults with pre-frailty symptoms. It will empower older citizens to better manage their own health, providing new ways of health monitoring and disease prevention through individualized profiling and personalized recommendations, feedback and support. An ICT-based platform will detect defined risks in the frailty domains early and accurately via non-stigmatising embedded sensors and data readily available in the daily living environment of older adults. When risk is detected (pre-frail), My-AHA will provide targeted ICT-based interventions. These interventions will follow an integrated approach to motivate users to participate in physical exercise, cognitively stimulating games and social networking to achieve long-term behavioural change, sustained by continued end user engagement with My-AHA. A randomized controlled study (RCT), involving 300 subjects receiving intervention, and 300 controls from many EU and non EU countries, to evaluate intercultural aspects, is ongoing in order to evaluate efficacy of the my-AHA platform. The ultimate aim is to deliver significant innovation in the area of active and healthy ageing through cooperation between European health care organizations, SMEs, and NGOs.1