ActiveLifestyle: a persuasive platform to monitor and motivate physical training plan compliance in elderly people

The primary public health goal is to increase the number of years of good health and, therefore, maintain independence and quality of life as long as possible. Healthy ageing is characterized by the avoidance of disease and disability, the maintenance of high physical and cognitive function, and sustained engagement in social and productive activities. These three components together define successful ageing. An important part of successful ageing, hence, is maximisation of physical performance. The ability to fully participate in productive and recreational activities of daily life may be af-fected when the capacity to easily perform common physical functions decreases. Health status, thus, is an important indicator of quality of life among older people. It appears that especially components of health-related fitness and functional performance, or serious, chronic conditions and diseases that directly influence the components of fitness and performance, are related to perceived health among middle-aged and older adults. Regular physical activity or exercise substantially prevents the development and progres-sion of most chronic degenerative diseases. In summary, it is evident that to increase older adults’ quality of life and fitness, we need to encourage the elderly to become more physically active and increase their fitness through training. Home environmental interventions to prevent functional decline seem to be effective and are, furthermore, preferred by elderly. Such interventions with integrated assistive technology devices have, in this context, the potential to further help in overcoming some of the barriers to start training and, thereby, maintaining physical independence for independently living elderly. Hence, the objective of this thesis is to identify how, through IT or IT-mediated persuasive soft-ware applications, we can enable independently living and healthy elderly people to perform balance and strength training plans autonomously at home and keep them motivated, in order to increase their compliance toward the plans.