Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and we took this into consideration in the process. There was a thin line and a trade off
between testing the platform with real users while the services were still under
improvement and adaptation for the real-life conditions. Finding many volunteers who fit
the inclusion criteria and are willing to evaluate the services was another challenge for us. It
also took us time to build understandable communication in cross-disciplinary teams
because of the different paradigms for the regional and technical partners. By far, the most
crucial factors were proved to be the maturity of the services; the thorough testing before
installing them in the homes; matching the services to those clients who have the most
benefit from them and openness for new technology.
During the trial period, all ethical rights of the citizens were respected and the trials were
carried out according to high ethical standards and the national regulations and the privacy
of the trial participants and all data related to this were ensured. All applicable national and
international laws and acts were respected too. The trial participants were recruited only
after approvals from Ethical Committees were granted for each region where it was
required and consent forms were signed by all trial participants.
At baseline, for the cohorts combined (intervention and control groups), the female
participants were 67.4%, the average age was 78.69 years, having mild to moderate decline
in cognition. The assessment on basic daily functioning showed full or high dependency,
while instrumental activities of daily living mean score indicated mid-range of dependency.
The test group of informal care-givers showed severe effect on their quality of life, but the
mean value for cohorts combined was on the border line of severe effect on their quality of
life. The care burden indicated that the care-givers were in the mid-range of caregiver-
burden effects. Highest percentage of family care-givers was children.
8.2 Findings from the final assessments
The controlled study assessed in the end of the 15-month trial period cognitive decline and
daily functioning for the elderly persons. For the informal care-givers - care stress. For both
groups the impact of the services on the quality of life was investigated. We looked further
into domains of which we expected the technology services to make a positive impact.
Elderly persons and relatives were also asked for their willingness to use the services after
the end of the project and their willingness to pay for the services in general.
User acceptance and satisfaction with the services were evaluated upon with the three main
end-user groups and for instance, care-givers were asked about the importance for care and
ability for independent living and, overall satisfaction. We observed a difference among the
views from the four regions for the services showing a minimum/maximum satisfaction
and acceptance among the elderly test users and a difference in the lowest/highest rating
among informal care-givers of the services that are important for care giving. This also
reflected cultural and care-model differences among the four European regions.
Regarding the feeling of safety, 70% of the elderly felt safer when using the ISISEMD
system. Another 20% reported feeling significantly safer. 40% of the informal care-givers
report feeling safer, with another 50% of them reporting feeling significantly safer. More
than half of the test users reported independent living increases - 51.61% of elderly and
67.74% of informal care-givers. Also 3.23% of the informal care-givers reported it increases
more than they thought.
