Investigating various technologies applied to assist seniors

Abstract

This study undertakes a systematic literature review to investigate current empirical studies on the assistive technologies applied in aged care. Our systematic review of 54 studies published from 2000 to 2014 examines the role of assistive technologies in seniors’ daily lives, from enhancements in their mobility to improvements in the social connectedness and decreases in readmission to hospitals. We found eight key issues in aged care that have been targeted by ICT researchers. We also identified the assistive technologies that have been proposed to overcome those problems, and we categorised these assistive technologies into six clusters. Our analysis showed significant growth in the number of publications in this area in the past few years. It also showed that most of the studies in this area have been conducted in North America.