PRE2023 3 Group2

Reserved for Satya, Petar, Alonso, Sander, gabriel

Problem Statement

The increasing quality of life on a global scale, coupled with the economic conditions in first-world countries where the cost of living per capita is steadily rising, has contributed to a demographic shift characterized by an aging population. Consequently, nations are faced with the imperative of allocating increased resources to elder care, exacerbating an existing shortage of caretakers. Conditions such as loneliness and prevalent health issues, including dementia, accentuate the vulnerability of the aging population, fostering a decline in both mental and physical well-being especially if there is no one to accompany and assist them.

USE

User:

• The main user of this technology will be the elderly that does not have a caretaker assigned to them nor other people to give them assistance. However, this does not limit to just the elderly, but whoever has a medical condition that does not allow them to adhere to the prescribed medication doses along with no one being able to take care of them doing their day to day tasks.

Society:

• Caretakers:
  • This would potentially reduce the burnout rate from caretakers as they have been reported to be burnt out due to low pay in addition to long hours due to the caretaker shortage.
• Government:
  • The main benefit for them would be that they could allocate less resources or subsidies to train/hire more caretakers and potentially increase more spending on healthcare providers as the elderly, especially those with dementia has a lower medication adherence. Thus the likelihood of coming back and using healthcare services would be higher.
• Healthcare services:
  • As mentioned previously, due to potentially having lower intake from the elderly, the burden on the healthcare services would be lower.

Enterprise:

• Given the current socioeconomic state globally, the trend of aging population will continue to increase unless large changes to the economic and social policies are made. Thus, this can be seen as a growing market.
• There will be a lot of business opportunities with AI chatbot companies as they will be the ones advancing the algorithm for the interaction between the robot and the user.

State Of The Art

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025619611631509

The nursing home industry experiences a higher turnover rate, attributed to comparatively lower wages and benefits, especially when compared to positions in hospitals. This is exacerbated by staffing shortages, leading to increased workloads and often necessitating staff members to take on multiple shifts in a day. Simultaneously, societal values are shifting towards individualism, contributing to the fragmentation of families due to factors like divorce or geographic distance. This trend results in a decline in the availability of "informal care providers," typically family members. The rise in nonmaternal caregivers, such as nannies or day-cares, not only weakens emotional bonds between parents and children but also contributes to a reduction in the pool of accessible informal care providers, further increasing the demand for nursing homes.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0897190017710524

This article conducts a thorough analysis of medication adherence among elderly individuals with dementia, encompassing adherence levels, influential factors, and strategies for intervention. The review consistently establishes a link between dementia/cognitive impairment and medication nonadherence in diverse studies. It emphasises factors like patient characteristics, disease conditions, and medication types as contributors to nonadherence. It highlights the necessity for customized interventions to enhance medication adherence in older individuals with dementia, emphasising the crucial role of caregiver support in this context.

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/ccp/2015/00000010/00000003/art00008#

This review highlights the substantial impact of cognitive impairment and dementia on the medication management skills of older individuals, emphasising the critical importance of evaluating their ability for self-administration through thorough assessments conducted by competent health professionals. Neglecting to address medication management skills in those with cognitive impairment could lead to heightened economic and healthcare burdens. Recognizing this potential consequence, the review urges immediate research into strategies for improving medicine-taking among individuals with cognitive impairment, emphasising the existing limitation in studies focused on this particular area.