Misaghian Khashayar, Lugo Jesus Eduardo, Faubert Jocelyn
Sage-Sentinel Smart Solutions, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa, Japan.
OIST Innovation, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Okinawa, Japan.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2024 Apr 4;16:1348712. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1348712. eCollection 2024.
The world is witnessing an unprecedented demographic shift due to increased life expectancy and declining birth rates. By 2050, 20% of the global population will be over 60, presenting significant challenges like a shortage of caregivers, maintaining health and independence, and funding extended retirement. The technology that caters to the needs of older adults and their caregivers is the most promising candidate to tackle these issues. Although multiple companies and startups offer various aging solutions, preventive technology, which could prevent trauma, is not a big part of it. Trauma is the leading cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality in older adults, and statistics constitute traumatic fall accidents as its leading cause. Therefore, an immediate preventive technology that anticipates an accident on time and prevents it must be the first response to this hazard category to decrease the gap between life expectancy and the health/wellness expectancy of older adults. The article outlines the challenges of the upcoming aging crisis and introduces falls as one major challenge. After that, falls and their mechanisms are investigated, highlighting the cognitive functions and their relation to falls. Moreover, since understanding predictive cognitive mechanisms is critical to an effective prediction-interception design, they are discussed in more detail, signifying the role of cognitive decline in balance maintenance. Furthermore, the landscape of available solutions for falling and its shortcomings is inspected. Finally, immediate fall prevention, the missing part of a wholesome solution, and its barriers are introduced, and some promising methodologies are proposed.
由于预期寿命的增加和出生率的下降，世界正在经历一场前所未有的人口结构转变。到2050年，全球20%的人口将超过60岁，这带来了诸多重大挑战，如护理人员短缺、维持健康和独立性以及为延长的退休生活提供资金等问题。满足老年人及其护理人员需求的技术是解决这些问题最有前景的选择。尽管众多公司和初创企业提供了各种应对老龄化的解决方案，但能够预防创伤的预防性技术在其中所占比重并不大。创伤是老年人发病、残疾和死亡的主要原因，而统计数据显示创伤性跌倒事故是其主要成因。因此，一种能够及时预测并预防事故的即时预防性技术必须成为应对这一危险类别的首要措施，以缩小老年人预期寿命与健康预期寿命之间的差距。本文概述了即将到来的老龄化危机所面临的挑战，并将跌倒作为一个主要挑战进行了介绍。之后，对跌倒及其机制进行了研究，重点强调了认知功能及其与跌倒的关系。此外，由于理解预测性认知机制对于有效的预测 - 拦截设计至关重要，因此对其进行了更详细的讨论，阐明了认知衰退在平衡维持中的作用。此外，还审视了现有的跌倒解决方案及其不足之处。最后，介绍了即时跌倒预防这一全面解决方案中缺失的部分及其障碍，并提出了一些有前景的方法。
