Specialty Fabrics Review November 2024 - 34

[ MARKETS ] ADVANCED TEXTILES
Smart garments for
elderly health care
Digital services are needed
to address the growing
demographic's needs.
by Marie O'Mahony, Ph.D.
A
MERICANS OVER THE AGE OF 75 ARE EXPECTED
to account for more than 50% of an anticipated
population increase of 19 million during the coming
decade. This is according to a March 2024 report by Wells
Fargo that also warns, " Assuming the share of the population
that has difficulty with self-care remains constant ... an
additional 1.7 million seniors will require care a decade from
now. " This comes with not just health care costs but societal
and economic ones, particularly for women, who represent
59% of unpaid caregivers.
Other nations are also struggling to find solutions. Japan now
has the highest life expectancy in the world, but it comes at a cost.
It's now commonplace to find people 80 years old or older taking
care of their parents, who are 100 years or older. With Japan
expected to soon have more than 100,000 people over the age
of 100, a care solution is needed.
In the U.K., with its public-funded National Health
Service (NHS), there are 8.7 million care contacts provided
by community care services every month. With 70% of these
services face-to-face, they are highly resource-intensive.
How wearables can help
What is universal among the elderly demographic is a desire to
live independently, either in their own home or in an assistedliving
situation. Wearables, although not a cure for this crisis,
have the potential to contribute to a solution by allowing the
elderly to be health-monitored remotely, using sensors to
check heart rate, temperature, respiration and other signs.
Technological advances and better integration, coupled
with a firm grasp of the importance of human-centered
design, are propelling innovation in the sector. Concerns
about privacy and data ownership are also significant issues
the industry must tackle.
The very early stages in the development of wearables
 Researchers from the Technical University of Dresden,
WarmX and Dresden Elektronik are developing smart gloves
that offer functionalities such as the tracking of finger
movement and pressure. Image: Marie O'Mahony, Ph.D.
focused on performance, or more accurately, just getting the
technology to work reliably. Largely funded by the military,
human-centered design was not a priority. As the technology
has come to the consumer, it has become apparent that to gain
acceptance and to ensure that it is worn-and worn correctly-
designers of these wearables need to put the human at the
forefront of the design process.
Comfort, flexibility, haptics and aesthetics are important
considerations, but when thinking about elderly users,
additional factors such as reduced mobility, visual limitations
and cognitive impairment must be considered. The impetus
34 SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW / November 2024
Specialty Fabrics Review November 2024

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