Year 2 Pilots

Publication: Passive Measures of Physical Activity and Cadence as Early Indicators of Cognitive Impairment: Observational Study

Authors: Huitong Ding, Stefaniya Brown, David R Paquette, Taylor A Orwig, Nicole Spartano, Honghuang Lin Abstract Background: Emerging research shows regular physical activity reduces cognitive decline risk, but most studies rely on self-reported measures, which are limited by recall bias, subjectivity, and a lack of continuous monitoring capability. Objective: This study aimed to explore passive physical activity measures as early indicators of cognitive impairment by examining their association with cognitive impairment incidence and neuropsychological (NP) test performance. Methods: We included participants from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), a community-based cohort with longitudinal cognitive impairment surveillance. Participants wore an Actical accelerometer for at least 3 days, excluding bathing. Thirty physical activity measures were grouped into intensity-specific durations, step and cadence summaries, and peak cadence. Cox proportional hazard models were applied to assess their associations with incident…

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Grant Funding: R41 AG092119

Continuation of VR technology development focused on the caregiver side of the dyad. Public Health Relevance Statement: The VR-CARES project is an innovative, collaborative effort that invites home health dementia caregivers into the design process of a virtual reality platform seeking to mitigate their work-related burden and social isolation by cultivating a virtual community of support. The co-created, caregiver-specific VR platform will serve as a safe, communal space where caregivers can remotely connect with their peers, share fun experiences together, access support, learn self-care and build resilience within a supportive virtual network to enhance their social and mental health and job satisfaction. Central to VR-CARES is the principle of user-led innovation, ensuring that the technology not only serves but is informed and successfully adopted by the very individuals it intends to benefit, an important standard…

Continue ReadingGrant Funding: R41 AG092119

Publication: Predicting Orthostatic Symptoms Using a Multiparameter Wearable Sensor

Authors: Ziad A Elhajjaji, Amar S Basu Abstract Orthostatic disorders affect 30% of older adults and increase the risk for falls. The current diagnostic standard, the blood pressure cuff, cannot capture the rapid, multifaceted dynamics of orthostasis physiology, resulting in frequent underdiagnosis. This paper demonstrates multiparameter, real-time measurement of orthostasis using TRACE, an earlobe mounted wearable developed in our group. In prior work, we demonstrated a novel metric called orthostatic hypovolemia (OHV1), the initial loss in cephalic (head) blood volume immediately upon standing. This study significantly advances our prior work by introducing an additional 2 metrics: OHV2, the cephalic blood volume deficit after the body achieves homeostasis after standing; and postural orthostatic tachycardia (POT), the increase in heart rate. The 3 metrics were evaluated in 101 older adults who wore the TRACE device during postural…

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