Gerontechnology: Literature Review and Research Agenda

Gerontechnology is a promising interdisciplinary research and practice area connecting two very diverse fields, namely demography and technology. Older adults are exposed to risks of events leading to ill health and disability or even death. Gerontechnology can support older adults to live independently in their own environments and can improve their overall satisfaction with life. Similarly, smart homes using wireless sensors networks embedded in cyber-physical systems, internet of things as the infrastructure and big data and machine learning, can support older adults to be independent longer in their communities and mitigate the risks leading to ill health and disability. The development of technologies in the last 20 years has opened up the possibilities of developing various models, tools and techniques for supporting older adults to live safer and more connected community lives. The central gap found in the literature review is the lack of the common dataset for measurement of the quality of technologies embedded in a smart home and recording of patterns of decline in functional capacities, which can cause events leading to ill health and disability. Based on these developments, we propose the multistate competing risk model for control of events leading to ill health and disabilities. This paper aims to review the development of control in gerontechnology and ambient assisted living technologies, to shape the model and propose a future research agenda.