Context-awareness through smart mobile technology for detection of self-injury risk in wandering elders diagnosed with early stages of dementia

Abstract

Challenges related to the phenomenon of an ageing population are starting to increase on a European level, largely due to improvements in medicine and to the baby-boom generation approaching its late middle-age. This increase in a population's average age is also increasing the rates of age-related deficiencies, most notably Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia that present several problems to all stakeholders. Most notably, the affected individuals' family members are facing a financial burden in allowing their relative to keep on living a normal life, while formal and informal care providers face a tough challenge in fighting stress and emotional burden when caring for persons suffering from the condition. This work is proposing a system capable of fitting in the hectic lives of both formal and informal caregivers, and providing a novel way of dealing with one of the most dangerous behaviours found in dementia patients: Wandering.