Weak elderly woman with walking stick waiting for help after breathlessness attack .Elderly woman fell on the floor.

Connected sensors that remotely monitor health at home are a promising way to capture a range of health data on older adults and identify health risks early, a new study has found. 

Investigators from the University of Bern in Switzerland were able to create an “extensive collection” of digital measures from older study participants based on information gathered from contactless sensors placed throughout the home.

The system used motion sensors in each room, a bed sensor under the mattress, and door sensors on the front door and refrigerator. These were connected to a base station which analyzes motion signals. The system is able to alert caregivers or an alarm center when problems arise, such as when a person does not return to bed at night.

The researchers found that they could apply the digital information gathered by the system to real-world data, and create digital clinical outcome assessments that are relevant to aging. These included falls risk, frailty, mild cognitive impairment and late-life depression, the authors reported in an article published in npj Digital Medicine

“Paired with modern machine learning, we find these assessments to be surprisingly powerful and often on-par with mobile approaches,” the authors wrote. “There is even the possibility of discovering new digital biomarkers (biological measures) based on this large-scale approach,” they added.

The system may be particularly attractive to seniors, the researchers said. Prior studies by the investigators have shown that older test subjects, especially those aged 80 and older, preferred a zero-interaction system over mobile devices.