Zamora Más Vida: Gamified IoT for promoting healthy aging among older adults

The project responded to the aging of the Spanish population, in which older adults are estimated to account for 34% of the total by 2050. The general improvement in living conditions reinforces the need to promote active aging that fits the characteristics and preferences of today's senior population.

The objectives of the project were:

• To develop and deploy an innovative, transferable IoT solution for monitoring and encouraging physical activity in older adults' everyday environment.
• To strengthen motivation and adherence to physical activity through gamification techniques.
• To generate scientific evidence on the impact of digital solutions on the physical and emotional health and quality of life of the senior population.

The areas on which the project was built were:

• IoT monitoring: a connected activity bracelet made it possible to measure steps, distance traveled, calories burned, and sleep habits in participants' daily environment.
• Gamification: a platform linked to a mobile app strengthened the motivation to increase physical exercise.
• Scientific evaluation: use of standardized pre- and post-intervention assessment instruments on well-being and quality of life, to measure the impact of physical activity on emotional aspects.

CTIC directed and scientifically coordinated the research, contributing its experience in developing technological solutions for active aging. The conclusions confirmed that technology is useful for improving health, increasing physical activity among the senior population, and strengthening their adherence, and also showed its potential as a motivating element that is easy to integrate into daily life and can complement professional health and social care. The study also identified the need to make the technology more transparent in order to increase people's trust in it.