Positive Technology Journal

"To see a trend over time, you need multiple measures - good days and bad days - and it often takes years to see that trend in a clinic setting," said Tamara Hayes, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at OHSU's OGI School of Science & Engineering, and the study's lead author. She noted that most clinic visits by elders are spaced over months or even years, and their memory and motor skills performances are evaluated in a small number of tests completed in a limited amount of time.

"In contrast, we're looking continuously at elders' activity in their own homes," Hayes said. "Since we're measuring a person's activity many times over a short period, we can understand their normal variability and identify trends. If there's a change over a period, you can see it quickly. "

Mild cognitive impairment is a known risk factor for dementia, a neurological disorder most commonly caused by Alzheimer's disease. Changes in clinical measures of activity, such as walking and finger-tapping speeds, have been shown to occur at about the same time as memory changes leading to dementia. By detecting subtle activity changes over time in the natural setting of an elder's home, researchers hope to more effectively identify when elders are starting to have trouble.