Elderly People and the City- An Investigation with GPS Methodology by Noam Shoval
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Transcript of Elderly People and the City- An Investigation with GPS Methodology by Noam Shoval
Elderly People and the City An Investigation with GPS Methodology
Dr. Noam Shoval
Department of Geography
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The research is supported by the Deutsch-Israelische Projektkooperation (DIP)
Dementia and Mobility
About 23 million people worldwide have some form of dementia
Rate rises with age – 1.5% among people aged
65-69; 25% among people aged 85+
“The white epidemic”
Rate is expected to double every 20 years
Many people with dementia have problems with mobility, especially outside the home.
Mobility problems, especially wandering, is one of
the main reasons for institutionalization of elders.
Sources: Ferri et al. (2005); Glickman (1997)
Research Team Hebrew University
Noam Shoval – Coordinator (Geography)
Gail Auslander (Social Work: Gerontology)
Ruth Landau (Social Work: Ethics)
Jeremia Heinik (Psychogeriatrics)
Univ. of Heidelberg
Hans-Werner Wahl (Psychology: Gerontology)
Frank Oswald (Environmental Psychology)
Tim Freytag (Geography)
Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region
Tel-Aviv Metropolitan Region
Study Goals (Selected)
Do mobility patterns of older adults vary according to their cognitive state? If so, what specific patterns in time and space occur?
Assess the relationship between mobility and quality of life among elders and their families.
Assess the potential of advanced tracking technologies to reduce stress and burden of families of elders with dementia.
Examine the ethical implications of advanced tracking technologies.
Assess the potential of the technology in the diagnosis of dementia.
General concept of data flow
Traditional Methods for Data Collection on Human Spatial Activity
Tracking / Following / Stalking
Observation: high buildings, CCTV cameras, etc.
Evidence provided by the research subject themselves (Questionnaires, Time-Space Diaries). Based on the subject’s collaboration… Especially in the case of cognitive impaired people.
The potential to implement advanced tracking technologies
Implementing Tracking Technologies for Spatial Research
My own experience:
Spatial activity of visitors to (1) Theme Parks (Mini-Israel, PortAventura - Catalunya) (2) Historic Cities (Akko, Heidelberg) and (3) Multi-Functional Cities (Hong-Kong)
Objective functional measures of orthopedic procedures (with Hadassah university hospital in Jerusalem)
END of Part 1
Recruitment of participants from three groups in each country (Israel and Germany):
Healthy elders, Elders with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Elders with Mild Dementia (MD)
Procedure repeated for three years.
Location Kit : Star unit, home unit and RF watch
Tracking technology – location kits
Perspective I: When the research unit is an Individual
•How do people move through space?
•What types of transportation do they use?
•Where do elderly people spend their time?
•How much of their time is spent at home?
Perspective II: When the research unit is the City:
One month
aggregative Activity of P8,
MCI
Tracking people involves a lot of data
Tracking a person every 10 seconds means collecting, storing and analyzing 360 points an hour and 8640 points a day, 259200 a month...
That is a lot of data!
Participant 111019, 26/4/08
What could make someone walk in such a strange pattern?
Part 3:
Preliminary Findings
Movement in Space
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Participants Tracks count by day of the week and hour
Monday
Saturday
In what activities outside
home do the participants
spend their time?
How far from home are
the participants during
the day and night?
P1 – Spider web chart of average activity
Distances from home of one participant during one week
Average of median distance from home for three cognitive groups
Aggregative Consumption of Space
Dr. Noam Shoval’s Research Group
GPS samples by
velocity
Conclusions
1. Using advanced tracking technologies opens up new possibilities for empirical research (in terms of the accuracy, and the data resolution).
2. The fact that the data is collected by digital interfaces allow accelerated analysis (almost in real time) and in lower costs.
3. Our research design enables us to link between the geographical, medical and psycho-social data.
4. Possibilities to implement the methodologies to advance research in other cases of pedestrian behavior.
Thanks!