According to a recently funded project, cutting edge technology can predict older people's risk of falling up to 32 days in advance.
One of the most important problems that older people's health and wellbeing face is falling.
Age Northern, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, the Public Health Agency (PHA), and Ulster University are all partners in the "Move More Live More" project.
Phyllis McGahan, 84, has never loved walking more than she does now, but it wasn't always like this.
She admitted to BBC News NI, "I had a bad fall a few years ago.
"In the midst of everything, Covid happened, and I lost my husband, so I wasn't in a good place. " .
Phyllis received a new knee 18 years ago, but claimed it was never comfortable. However, by enrolling in a research project, she was able to change her life with the aid of technology and a smartwatch.
It tells me to get up and move if I've been sitting for a while, she said.
Now that I am aware that I must walk up here, it does not need to remind me as frequently as it did in the beginning.
I wouldn't have done much walking and spent a lot of time sitting down.
"Today, according to my watch, I can complete 8,000 steps. I hope to reach 9,000 and perhaps 10,000.". ".
Phyllis is one of the project's initial participants. Its goal is to prevent falls in seniors over 65 by providing health education and other preventative and intervention measures.
Age NI's Vicki Caddy stated, "At Age NI, we really understand the impact falls can have on older people and those nearby.
However, we now know that falling is not a necessary part of getting older.
"The goal of this program is to keep older people healthy for longer. ".
Wearing a smart watch to participate in the program involves tracking activity levels, sleep, heart rate, and Sp02 (oxygen saturation).
The monitoring platform employs predictive analytics to find changes that might point to a higher risk of falling.
"A software program is running in the background that benchmarks someone's typical patterns of activity, their typical amount of movement, heart rate, or sleep in a day," Ms. Caddy said.
For each participant in the program, they set a level.
"If there are any changes, the software will detect them even before the individual wearer is aware that anything has changed.
"If those alerts reach a level where there is cause for concern, the data is sent to a call center, where someone will call the wearer of the device to make sure everything is OK, ask if they need any help or medical advice, and determine whether they are moving as much as they were and why not. ".
There is a procedure to get the person back into medical care, according to Ms. Caddy, if additional assistance is required at this point.
There is a genuine safety net surrounding this, she insisted.
It's not just one person relying on technology by wearing a watch.
"This also has a strong human interface," said the speaker. ".
People over 65 who want to experiment with technology are welcome to join the program.
With this technology, Ms. Caddy claimed, "We are really breaking ground.".
"It is completely new, and people in Northern Ireland are invited to be among the very first to try it out.
The number of watches we have available is around 600, but we have room for up to 1,300 people. ".
According to the Public Health Agency, the cost of falls among people over 65 to Northern Ireland's healthcare system is predicted to be around £375 million over a two-year period.
Falls have "a huge impact on older people," according to Sandra Aitcheson, assistant director of nursing at the PHA, starting with fear, anxiety, social isolation, reduced mobility, and progressing to independence and occasionally admission to nursing homes.
The fear of falling is one of the main concerns older people express when speaking with them, she claimed.
"Falls are a significant contributor to disability and are the leading cause of injury-related death in people over the age of 75, particularly after a hip fracture," she said.
"According to annual data, one in three people over the age of 65 and about half of people over the age of 85 will fall at least once.
"Before the pandemic, more than 26,000 elderly people visited emergency rooms in this area each year after falling. " .
Preventing falls, according to Ms. Aitcheson, is the first step, and this project will aid in that.
She said, "This little piece of equipment, this lovely little watch, really has the potential to help keep older people well, more fit, more able, and to keep them strong so they don't end up one of those 26,000 in Aandamp;E.".
"Therefore, for the individual, enormous gains; for the system, phenomenal gains, so I think this would be a winner all around."
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