MOBILITY, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN THE DAILY LIVES OF HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS: THE MOASIS PROJECT

Abstract

Late life development is characterized by multidirectional trajectories of change and stability in psychological functioning. Little is known, however, about how healthy older adults in fact structure their daily lives in terms of the activities carried out. The Mobility, Activity and Social Interactions Study (MOASIS) uses a custom-built single mobile sensor, the uTrail, to collect GPS and accelerometer data as well as ambient sound recordings to obtain objective information on spatial, physical and social activity in 150 community-dwelling older adults aged 65+ years across 30 days. These sensor-based assessments are complemented by experience-sampling of affect, stress and self-reported activity information and cognitive performance in an ambulatory working memory task using Smartphones. The project represents a collaboration between lifespan psychologists, gerontologists and geographical information scientists to obtain rich within-person profiles of daily life activities, performance, experiences and the context in which these occur as a starting point to develop interventions for health maintenance and quality of life in old age.