A Pilot Study to Test the Feasibility of a Home Mobility Monitoring System in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Technology enables home-based personalized care through continuous, automated, real-time monitoring of a participant's health condition and remote communication between health care providers and participants. Technology has been implemented in a variety of nursing practices. However, little is known about the use of home mobility monitoring systems in visiting nursing practice. Therefore, the current study tested the feasibility of a home mobility monitoring system as a supportive tool for monitoring daily activities in community-dwelling older adults. Daily mobility data were collected for 15 months via home-based mobility monitoring sensors among eight older adults living alone. Indoor sensor outputs were categorized into sleeping, indoor activities, and going out. Atypical patterns were identified with reference to baseline activity. Daily indoor activities were clearly differentiated by sensor outputs and discriminated atypical activity patterns. During the year of monitoring, a health-related issue was identified in a participant. Our findings indicate the feasibility of a home mobility monitoring system for remote, continuous, and automated assessment of a participant's health-related mobility patterns. Such a system could be used as a supportive tool to detect and intervene in the case of problematic health issues.