Persuasive Technology to Motivate Physical Activity among Elderly Individuals

Iñaki Merino Albaina

MSc Program: Media & Knowledge Engineering

Daily supervisors:drs. L.H.T.E. Yamane

dr. ir. M.H. VastenburgSCID group

Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering

Supervisor:dr. ir. C.A.P.G. van der Mast

MMI groupFaculty of Electrical Engineering,

Mathematics and Computer Science

Independent@Home Introduction Physical Activity for older adults Persuasive Technology Limitations of the elderly using technology Discussion Conclusions Questions

Index

Independent@Home

Goal: To develop context-aware infrastructures for home environments that can provide supporting services for elderly

Fact: Progressive aging of world population

Problem: For the economy and public health it is necessary to encourage healthy physical activity among the elderly.

Our approach: A new home-based context-aware service to motivate seniors to exercise.

The essence:Using technology to persuade people to do something.

Introduction

In which way could existing persuasive principles, in combination with context-aware systems,

be applied to motivate elderly individuals to do exercise?

Introduction

Traditionally: Specific exercises, mainly at health care facilities, 2-3 times a week

Recent trends: Simple day-to-day activities, familiar setting, daily basis.

Physical Activity for older adults

“Any interactive computing system designed to change people’s attitudes or behaviours”

Persuasive Technology (PT)

Advantages: Persistent, anonymous, ubiquitous Roles:

Persuasive principles

Social psychology

ObservationSocial facilitationSocial comparisonSocial learningCompetition, Cooperation, and RecognitionReciprocityAuthority and Credibility

Individual motivation theory

Goal-settingSelf-monitoringOperant conditioningConsistencyIntrinsic motivation

Activity related strategies

Value integrationConvenienceSimplicity and ReductionKairos and Suggestion

“A system is context-aware if it uses context to provide relevant information and/or services to the user, where relevancy depends on the

user’s task.”

PT and Context-awareness

Applications Services

Storage/Management

Data Processing(Middleware Platforms)

Pre-processing

Raw data retrieval

Sensors Data Collection

Activity-awareness can provide the key to know when and how to approach the user (e.g. smart homes).

Example system framework:

Elderly: 65+

Limitations:

Limitations of the elderly using technology

Cognitive issues

MemoryLanguage comprehension

Visual attentionProcedural knowledge

MultitaskingMotion

Problems

Perception problems

VisionAudition

Finding appropriate PA

Persuasive principles recipe?

Finding a medium adapted to limitations of the users

Which are the difficulties?

“Simple day-to-day activities, familiar setting, daily basis”

?

Routine activities such as cooking, vacuuming, and climbing home stairs could be part of an easy-to-follow PA program

It is difficult to measure the physical expenses There is a lack of evidenced support by physicians

Walking seems to be optimal Easy to measure (accelerometers, pedometers) Recommended to almost all types of individuals Excellent training for endurance, strength, and flexibility

Find appropriate PA

Self-monitoring and goal-setting

Positive reinforcement (e.g. points or money)

Social psychology: observation, competition, cooperation, recognition.

Suitable persuasion principles

A game consisting in performing certain amount of exercise everyday.

Keeps the engagement and takes the user’s mind off of negative aspects of physical exercise

Intrinsic motivation (personal challenge) Allows competition or collaboration Positive reinforcement

(e.g. points, prices)

Suitable mediums (I)

An agent-based application that assists the individuals to complete the exercise program.

Assistive approach Supports goal-setting and

self-monitoring As a social actor, might be

perceived by users as morefriendly, familiar and reliable

Could be locally or remotelysupervised by real physicians

Suitable mediums (II)

A simple activity meter that displays the amount of exercise that users do.

Less intrusive approach (mainly informative) Especially suitable for those users concerned about

privacy Simplest interface

Suitable mediums (III)

Day-to-day activities are optimal to design an easy-to-follow exercise plan for elderly individuals. Walking is a very appropriate activity since it is widely recommended and it is easy to measure.

Past products showed that persuasive principles from individual motivation theory (e.g. goal setting, self-monitoring, operant conditioning) and social psychology (e.g. validation and comparison) are highly suitable to promote physical activity.

Conclusions (I)

Although it is possible to find PT products to stimulate physical activity in the market, none of them is adapted to the limitations of older adults.

This study has presented different approaches to deliver PT products to stimulate physical activity among seniors, but it is still to be proven to what extent they can succeed to modify the behaviour towards exercise.

Conclusions (II)

Questions?