Blog by Ronny Bergquist, PhD student in the Geriatrics, Movement and Stroke (GeMS) research group at the Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science at NTNU, Norway, and partner in the EU PreventIT consortium. ronny.bergquist@ntnu.no A switch from treatment to prevention is needed to meet the increasing pressure on the healthcare system that follows a growing older population and higher life expectancy. Objective assessment of physical function can be an important step in empowering people to take responsibility of their own health and function, as it can create awareness of risk of functional decline and deficiencies in physical function with ageing.Read More

                    The health benefits of physical activity are well known, yet few of us achieve the 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week recommended by the World Health Organization (World Health Organization [WHO], 2010). In addition to walking more and sitting less, older adults should also be working on their strength and balance in order to prevent age-related functional decline (National Health Service [NHS], 2015). We know that tailored interventions can be successful, so researchers in the PreventIT project are working on developing and trialling two behaviour change interventions,Read More

June 17-22, 2018 – University Residential Centre of Bertinoro, Italy International Summer School for Early Career Researchers* Date: 17th of June – 22nd of June, 2018 Place: University Residential Centre of Bertinoro, Italy Aims and topic Emerging smart, mobile technologies and behavioural intervention programmes provide the focus for understanding the role of technology in changing behaviours in adults towards an active and healthy lifestyle and preserving physical function and quality of life at older age. PhD students and early career researchers* from a variety of disciplines will be exposed to relevant topics such as how to:   Apply theory andRead More

Interview with Professors Jorunn Helbostad and Beatrix Vereijken who are the coordinators of the PreventIT project, which will use wearable technology to measure and prevent function decline in older age groups. Here they explain how they will use the information to develop strategies to keep people as healthy as possible, for as long as possible. Read the full article here: PreventIT _IMPACTPUBLICATION_Brochure_Final

SAVE THE DATE “New Technologies and Changing Behaviours” Summer School June 17-22, 2018 – University Residential Centre of Bertinoro, Italy Concept: Emerging smart and mobile technologies and behavioural intervention programmes provide the focus for understanding the role of technology in changing behaviours and preserving health and quality of life. PhD stu- dents and junior researchers from a variety of disciplines (e.g. behavioural science, computer science, engineering, human-computer interaction) will be exposed to relevant topics such as how to: • Apply evidence and theory in development and evaluation • Engage users, without which the most impressive technologies will be of littleRead More

Blog by: Dr. Wei Zhang, Dr. Anisoara Ionescu and Prof. Kamiar Aminian. Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurements, EPFL Zurich, Switzerland.   Life expectancy is higher than ever, making it crucial that we empower older adults to take care of their own health and function as much and as long as possible. Physical activity plays an important role in healthy living. Thanks to the advancement of welfare technologies, such as mobile health (mHealth) technology, we are one step further in delivering services to assist older adults to stay physically active and adopt healthy behaviour in their daily life. What isRead More

Evaluating new technologies for promotion of healthy active ageing: using smartphone apps and sensors to promote activity- acceptability and adherence measurement? This PhD will investigate the acceptability of smartphones and sensors to young older people (61-70) and how these can be designed to be attractive to this age group. The literature and our own experience (Waterman et al 2016) reveal that there can be mismatch between activity data from sensors and report data. Whilst at first sight one is tempted to argue the sensor data must be correct and self-report in some way biased, sensors can misclassify or miss activityRead More

Today, the 8th of September is the international physical therapy day, which this year focuses on healthy ageing, and “adding life to years”.  This important topic is exactly also the main focus of PreventIT. Through PreventIT we will empower people to stay healthy and active over time, by using technology embedded in smartphones and smartwatches to monitor and give individualised feedback on healthy behaviour.

Video_Amsterdam

Several PreventIT partners met in Lausanne in Switzerland June 6-7, 2016, to discuss and put together pieces of work required for the electronic version of the LiFE intervention (eLiFE) to work as intended. The coordinator of PreventIT, Jorunn L Helbostad, described the work performed by the consortium as a ‘cog wheel’: Each of the elements of the work performed has to work together in order for the mHealth system to work as intended. And, we seem to be on track! An exercise database has been developed and instructions translated. The development of the smartphone application delivering the intervention has madeRead More