Impact of a TV-based assistive technology on older people’s ability to self-manage their own health

Nowadays, special emphasis is being focused on involving people on their own health and care. The use of digital technologies in the home-care management process is increasingly contributing to the maintenance of quality of life and preservation of functional independence in older adults. There is a huge number of available m-health applications for self-tracking health parameters, but the majority of them are inconsistent with the needs of older adults who do not currently use technologies such as computers, smartphones or tablets. The aim of this work is to present a pilot study, which included 19 older adults, that was conducted to objectively measure the effect of a TV-based assistive system on the improvement of older adults’ activation levels about self-management of health. The correlation with the usage of specific digital services provided by the system was also investigated. The results reveal how the impact is limited by the aspecific nature of the intervention with respect to the participants’ health condition. At the same time, they are encouraging and indicate that there is the potential for the system to impact on older people’ self-management skills.