title: ICT services for active ageing and independent living: identification and assessment.
abstract: Based on the demographic changes and the rapid increase of older population in Europe, major challenges are expected to rise, both in the economy as well as the society, whether the dominant care model for supporting elderly in living independently at home continues to rely on informal and formal caregivers' assistance. To respond to the above challenges, assistive technologies are called to develop Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services for supporting seniors to remain active and independent, for as long as possible, in their chosen home environment. The work described in this Letter is based on the Miraculous-Life project and it emphasises the identification and assessment of a set of services that an ICT system for Ageing Well should support, in an actual end-users setting. The outcome of this work may inform fellow researchers and other projects in the area of Ageing Well in: (i) understanding which ICT services can be the most valuable for end-users' Quality of Life, (ii) prioritising the development of related ICT services and (iii) facilitating better recourse allocation in order to reduce any risks associated to implementation failures of these services within their respective projects. A final trial phase is planned, aiming to validate the Miraculous Life prototype longitudinally in a naturalistic environment with a larger sample size. During this trial, it will be investigated if perceived usefulness, satisfaction and motivation could be predicted by sociodemographic variables and personality.
authors.affiliation: CITARD Services Ltd , Nicosia , Cyprus.
authors.forename: Christophoros
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Christophorou
authors.affiliation: CITARD Services Ltd , Nicosia , Cyprus.
authors.forename: Styliani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kleanthous
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science , University of Cyprus , Cyprus.
authors.forename: Dimosthenis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Georgiadis
authors.affiliation: Maison de Retraite du Petit-Saconnex , Geneva , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Donato M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Cereghetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Cyprus; Department of Computing, University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus.
authors.forename: Panayiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Andreou
authors.affiliation: Zuyderland , Sittard-Geleen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wings
authors.affiliation: CITARD Services Ltd, Nicosia, Cyprus; Institute of Services Science, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science , University of Cyprus , Cyprus.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Samaras
keywords: Europe; ICT services; Information and Communication Technology; Miraculous-Life project; active ageing; elderly people; geriatrics; independent living; older population; patient care; personality; quality of life; recourse allocation; sociodemographic variables; telemedicine