Effectiveness of Technological Interventions for Older Adults With Parkinson Disease: Systematic Review.

Background: Among the older population, Parkinson disease (PD) stands out as a leading contributor to disability. Clinically, the foremost objectives in managing PD involve proactively delaying and preventing disability. Understanding the pivotal role of gait and balance in daily functionality holds substantial clinical significance, signaling imminent disability and prompting a reevaluation of management approaches.

e-VITA study protocol: EU-Japan virtual coach for smart aging.

Aim: The aim of this study is to report a trial protocol for assessing the improvement of older adults' well-being, promoting active and healthy aging, and reducing the risks of social exclusion, using a virtual coach.

Background: Increased longevity brings with it reduced autonomy and independence, and it is therefore necessary to act with preventive measures that can promote active and healthy aging. With the development of technology, new tools have appeared, including virtual coaches, which can enable people to lead a healthy lifestyle by identifying individual needs and goals and providing personalized recommendations and advice.

Technology-Enabled Senior Living: A Preliminary Report on Stakeholder Perspectives.

Background: The integration of stakeholders is crucial in developing smart living technologies to support the autonomy of elderly populations. Despite the clear benefits of these technologies, there remains a significant gap in comprehensive research.

Methods: This study presents the viewpoints of 19 stakeholders from Europe and Japan, focusing on the sustainability of smart living solutions for Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA).

Toward Innovation in Healthcare: An Analysis of the Digital Behavior of Older People in Europe and Japan for the Introduction of a Technological Coaching System.

(1) Background: The increasing older population and demographic shifts highlight the need to understand the digital profiles of older adults, a pivotal factor in developing innovative technologies like the e-VITA virtual coach. This personalized coach provides recommendations for sustainable well-being in a smart home environment. (2) Methods: This study focuses on analyzing the characteristics of older individuals categorized as Internet users (onliners) and non-users (offliners).

Usability and Feasibility Assessment of a Social Assistive Robot for the Older People: Results from the GUARDIAN Project.

In Italy, many people aged over 65 cannot live independently, causing an overall decrease in their quality of life and a need for social and health care. Due to the lack of both formal and informal caregivers, technological solutions become of paramount importance in this scenario. This article describes the user-centered development of the GUARDIAN ecosystem, consisting of a social robot integrated with two mobile applications which aim to monitor, coach, and keep the older user company in order to prolong his/her independence at home.

Evaluation of the Italian version of the elderly mobility scale in older hospitalized patients.

Introduction: Reliable and valid assessment tools are needed to evaluate and predict physical function in older hospitalized patients. The aim of this study is to develop the Italian version of the Elderly Mobility Scale (I-EMS) and to evaluate its validity and inter-rater reliability for use with geriatric inpatients.

Methods: The study consists of two phases: (i) translation, where EMS version 2 was translated into Italian by two teams, each comprising 2 bilingual physiotherapists; translations were back translated by 2 native English speakers, and a committee of 2 physiotherapists and 1 physician refined the initial I-EMS version, which was pilot-tested for clarity in a group of ten experienced geriatric physiotherapists; (ii) an observational study assessed I-EMS metrics (reliability, validity) in older Italian inpatients at IRCCS INRCA (Ancona, Italy) between September 2022 and April 2023.

Results of the Italian RESILIEN-T Pilot Study: A Mobile Health Tool to Support Older People with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

(1) Background: The RESILIEN-T system addresses the need for innovative solutions to support self-management in older people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Despite the increasing prevalence of dementia and MCI, there is a lack of tailored solutions for these individuals. The RESILIEN-T system aims to empower and engage people with cognitive decline by providing a modular platform for self-management and coaching services.

Intrinsic Capacity and Active and Healthy Aging Domains Supported by Personalized Digital Coaching: Survey Study Among Geriatricians in Europe and Japan on eHealth Opportunities for Older Adults.

Background: The worldwide aging trend requires conceptually new prevention, care, and innovative living solutions to support human-based care using smart technology, and this concerns the whole world. Enabling access to active and healthy aging through personalized digital coaching services like physical activity coaching, cognitive training, emotional well-being, and social connection for older adults in real life could offer valuable advantages to both individuals and societies. A starting point might be the analysis of the perspectives of different professionals (eg, geriatricians) on such technologies.

Radiomics and Artificial Intelligence for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review of Studies in the Field.

The use of radiomics and artificial intelligence applied for the diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease has developed in recent years. However, this approach is not yet completely applicable in clinical practice. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic analysis of the studies that have included the use of radiomics from different imaging techniques and artificial intelligence for the diagnosis and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease in order to improve the clinical outcomes and quality of life of older patients.

Social robotics to support older people with dementia: a study protocol with Paro seal robot in an Italian Alzheimer's day center.

Introduction: The aging of the population and the high incidence of those over 80 lead to an inevitable increase in chronic degenerative diseases, such as dementia, resulting in increased morbidity and disability. Treatment of people with dementia involves both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. In particular, robot-assisted therapy is a potentially useful treatment for dementia as it has the advantage of improving mood, encouraging social interaction and communication.

The Effect of Non-Immersive Virtual Reality Exergames versus Traditional Physiotherapy in Parkinson's Disease Older Patients: Preliminary Results from a Randomized-Controlled Trial.

(1) Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most frequent causes of disability among older people. Recently, virtual reality and exergaming have been emerged as promising tools for gait and balance rehabilitation in PD patients. Our purpose is to evaluate an innovative treatment for older patients with PD, based on non-immersive virtual reality exergames, improving gait and balance and reducing falling risk.

A Psychosocial Intervention for Supporting Informal Caregivers of Older People With Alzheimer Disease: Protocol for the InnFamiglia Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Dementia is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by impaired cognitive functions associated with psychological and behavioral disorders. The informal caregiver has a central role in the life of the person with dementia. Committing a large part of the day to caring for the assisted person inevitably has an effect on the caregiver's life.

The social robot companion to support homecare nurses: The guardian study protocol.

Introduction: The reduction of the older people's self-sufficiency and the increase in the need for help in daily activities has a significant impact on the person and their caregivers. The primary objective of the GUARDIAN project is to enable the older people to live as long as possible at home, by means of the GUARDIAN socio-technical platform.

Methods: and Analysis: The GUARDIAN platform consists of two connected apps: one dedicated to the caregiver (Caregiver App) and one dedicated to the older people (Senior App), plus a robot (Misty II), to provide coaching in an engaging modality.

Social Robotics and Dementia: Results from the eWare Project in Supporting Older People and Their Informal Caregivers.

The aim of this paper is to describe the results collected with the Italian study conducted within eWare project, aimed at supporting the autonomy and health of the older people affected by dementia and their informal caregivers, through the use of an innovative system based on a social robot and a sensorized environmental infrastructure. Nine dyads of older participants with their caregivers were enrolled in testing the system for 6 months. The results show a positive impact of the system in supporting the achievement of personal goals of the participants, as well as in supporting the quality of life of the informal caregivers.

An integrated intervention of computerized cognitive training and physical exercise in virtual reality for people with Alzheimer's disease: The jDome study protocol.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by cognitive deficits, loss of daily functions, and mental and behavioral disorders, which cause stress and negatively affect the quality of life. Studies in the field suggest that combining cognitive training with physical activity can reduce the risk of developing the disease and, once neurodegeneration has begun, it slows its progress. In particular, virtual reality and augmented reality administer cognitive stimulation while providing a link to autobiographical memory through reminiscence, enabling the improvement of the person's quality of life.

User Perceptions and Needs Analysis of a Virtual Coach for Active and Healthy Ageing-An International Qualitative Study.

Virtual coaching systems show great potential for meeting the challenges of demographic change. However, the proportion of older users in the field of digital technologies is far behind that of younger people. As part of the e-VITA project, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Japan, France, Italy and Germany with 58 people aged 65 and over, and the content was analyzed with the aim of obtaining information about how older adults organize their everyday lives, also with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, how they deal with their health, what role digital technologies play in the lives of the interviewees and why they oppose progressive digitization.

A systematic review of multidomain and lifestyle interventions to support the intrinsic capacity of the older population.

Introduction: The focus on intrinsic capacity (IC) could help clinicians to design interventions to improve the health of the older population. This review aims to map the current state of the art in the field of multi-domain interventions based on the IC framework, to allow health professionals in identifying personalized clinical interventions, oriented to empower the older people with a holistic and positive approach.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted in July 2021 analyzing manuscripts and articles of the last 10.

Design and Development of a Scale for Evaluating the Acceptance of Social Robotics for Older People: The Robot Era Inventory.

Introduction: Nowadays, several robots have been developed to provide not only companionship to older adults, but also to cooperate with them during health and lifestyle activities. Despite the undeniable wealth of socially assistive robots (SARs), there is an increasing need to customize the tools used for measuring their acceptance in real-life applications.

Methods: Within the Robot-Era project, a scale was developed to understand the degree of acceptance of the robotic platform.

Acceptability and Preliminary Results of Technology-Assisted Balance Training in Parkinson's Disease.

(1) Background: Parkinson's Disease (PD) is one of the most common causes of disability among older individuals. The advanced stages of PD are usually characterized by postural instability and, as a consequence, falls. Those are among the main factors that determine the quality of life, as well as the morbidity and mortality of a person with PD.

Dancing With Parkinson's Disease: The SI-ROBOTICS Study Protocol.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most frequent causes of disability among older people, characterized by motor disorders, rigidity, and balance problems. Recently, dance has started to be considered an effective exercise for people with PD. In particular, Irish dancing, along with tango and different forms of modern dance, may be a valid strategy to motivate people with PD to perform physical activity.

eHealth Literacy: From Theory to Clinical Application for Digital Health Improvement. Results from the ACCESS Training Experience.

Skills, knowledge, and awareness of digital and technological tools are essential to improve the state of well-being and health of older adults and also to mitigate the condition of social isolation in the aging process. For this reason, it is necessary to implement a social learning of electronic/digital tools for health of older people to support the achievement of eHealth and digital competences. The paper reports the results of an Italian innovative eHealth training for the European project ACCESS.

Designing Acceptable Robots for Assisting Older Adults: A Pilot Study on the Willingness to Interact.

The aim of this paper was to explore the psychosocial determinants that lead to acceptability and willingness to interact with a service robot, starting with an analysis of older users' behaviors toward the Robot-Era platform, in order to provide strategies for the promotion of social assistive robotics. A mixed-method approach was used to collect information on acceptability, usability, and human-robot interaction, by analyzing nonverbal behaviors, emotional expressions, and verbal communication. The study involved 35 older adults.

A Preliminary Validation of a New Surgical Procedure for the Treatment of Primary Bladder Neck Obstruction Using a Computational Modeling Approach.

A new surgical procedure for the treatment of primary bladder neck obstruction with maintenance of anterograde ejaculation is proposed. In place of monolateral or bilateral bladder neck incision, associated with a loss of ejaculation rate of up to 30%, the new surgical procedure consists of laser drilling the bladder neck with a number of holes and without muscle fiber disruption. The effect of this novel procedure has been studied numerically, with a simplified two-dimensional numerical model of the internal urethral sphincter, varying the position and the number of holes in the fibrotic region of the urethral tissue.

An innovative training based on robotics for older people with subacute stroke: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Stroke is a leading cause of disability, injury, and death in elderly people and represents a major public health problem with substantial medical and economic consequences. The incidence of stroke rapidly increases with age, doubling for each decade after age 55 years. Gait impairment is one of the most important problems after stroke, and improving walking function is often a key component of any rehabilitation program.