Search

The aging population requires cutting-edge approaches to geriatric care, with digital health technologies playing a crucial part in meeting the challenging demands of healthcare. Current approaches frequently fall short of the goal of providing comprehensive, real-time monitoring and merging contextually complex information for use in the treatment of patients. This paper addresses these limitations by integrating the innovative approaches within the RO-SmartAgeing system and the NeuroPredict platform to boost geriatric-care outcomes. It emphasizes the multifaceted design and development processes of these digital health solutions, emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach and a meticulous choice of decision-making tools. This paper presents the inclusion of decision-making tools, namely the Medical Blackbox and Gaitband, into the RO-SmartAgeing system and the NeuroPredict platform; these tools have been developed for the purpose of gathering complex physiological data and allow for in-depth evaluations of gait patterns and vital health parameters in elderly individuals. The present research emphasizes major breakthroughs in sensing technology and decision-making capabilities, illustrating the manner in which these tools enhance patient outcomes by providing timely, data-driven insights. The results demonstrate that these tailored decision-making tools significantly improve patient outcomes, underscoring the need for such ongoing improvements able to address digital health solutions tailored to the dynamic demands of an increasingly aging population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that lead to abnormal movements and postures; it has a major impact on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study was to examine the HRQoL of Romanian patients with dystonia using the EQ-5D-5L instrument. Methods: Responses to the EQ-5D-5L and the visual analogue scale (VAS) were collected alongside demographic and clinical characteristics. Health profiles were analyzed via the metrics of the EQ-5D-5L, severity levels, and age groups. Using Shannon's indexes, we calculated informativity both for patients' health profile as a whole and each individual dimension. Level sum scores (LSS) of the EQ-5D-5L were calculated and compared with scores from the EQ-5D-5L index and VAS. The HRQoL measures were analyzed through demographic and clinical characteristics. Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation, and non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U or Kruskall–Wallis H) were used. The level of agreement between HRQoL measures was assessed using their intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland–Altman plots. Results: A sample of 90 patients was used, around 75.6% of whom were female patients, and the mean age at the beginning of the survey was 58.7 years. The proportion of patients reporting "no problems" in all five dimensions was 10%. The highest frequency reported was "no problems" in self-care (66%), followed by "no problems" in mobility (41%). Shannon index and Shannon evenness index values showed higher informativity for pain/discomfort (2.07 and 0.89, respectively) and minimal informativity for self-care (1.59 and 0.68, respectively). The mean EQ-5D-5L index, LSS, and VAS scores were 0.74 (SD = 0.26), 0.70 (SD = 0.24), and 0.61 (SD = 0.21), respectively. The Spearman correlations between HRQoL measures were higher than 0.60. The agreement between the EQ-5D-5L index and LSS values was excellent (ICC = 0.970, 95% CI = 0.934–0.984); the agreement was poor-to-good between the EQ-5D-5L index and VAS scores (ICC = 683, 95% CI = 0.388–0.820), and moderate-to-good between the LSS and VAS scores (ICC = 0.789, 95% CI = 0.593–0.862). Conclusions: Our results support the utilization of the EQ-5D-5L instrument in assessing the HRQoL of dystonia patients, and empirical results suggest that the EQ-5D-5L index and LSS measure may be used interchangeably. The findings from this study highlight that HRQoL is complex in patients with dystonia, particularly across different age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]