Measuring Environmental Data and Physiological Parameters at Home to Assess the Caregiver Burden in Assistants of People with Dementia

Abstract

Measuring the behaviour and health status of informal caregivers of people with dementia can predict the personal well-being of the caregivers. Informal caregivers struggle to remain active during the daily life activities avoiding the care burden. For this reason, in this work, an analysis of both the environmental data coming from PIR sensors, installed in the home environment, and physiological parameters, directly measured by the user, is performed to highlight, unusual behaviors that can increase the stress level of the caregiver. In addition, daily survey and personal interview provide further information about the progression of the illness and the amount of the care burden. Coupling this information with the physiological quantities can provide an overall health status of the caregiver. Results show that the caregiver presents a decreasing trend of her daily self-reported health status associated with a change in the pattern of the domotic data. The questionnaire also exhibits a high correlation with body weight measurements (Pearson Coefficient of −86%) suggesting that the caregiver health status is limiting the normal daily activities, may be due to an increase of the care burden associated to a worsening of the illness.