Tag Archives: aging

Featured Thesis: Activities of daily living as a functional assessment predictor in older adults

by Adeshina Alani

Today, we feature MSc research in Computer Science related to health and aging, “a systematic review with focus on architecture in connected health”. https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/handle/1828/11346

Abstract (excerpt):

Background: Functional Assessment (FA) in older adults is an important measure of their health status. FA using Activities of Daily Living (ADL) is a strong predictor of health outcomes, especially as we age. With the development of increasingly-connected health, we have a new opportunity for more robust and improved FA. Objective: The objective of this thesis is to collate and discuss published evidence on FA predictors and how the FA predictors can be collected using the paradigm of Connected Health (CH) architectures through an industrial case study(…)
Conclusion: Having conducted the two SLRs, a wide range of measures were used for FA in older adults, including consideration on the SEATS used for computer-supported FA. Overall, these FA measures and SEATS provide inexpensive and easy-to-implement FA. The diversity of the FA measures and SEATS contributes towards the development of computer-supported FA. However, future work is needed to consider the result of this study as an open-source computer-supported FA tool, and such tool should also be evaluated and verified through direct examination with older adults.

To read more, visit UVicSpace https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/handle/1828/11346

*UVic’s open access repository, UVicspace, makes worldwide knowledge mobilization possible. Through this platform, researchers at any institution have access to dissertations (and theses and graduate projects) published by our graduate students. This also makes works available to the interested layperson, who may be engaged in learning more about the research being done at UVic, with no paywall. UVic’s graduate students are doing valuable research every day – but sometimes it goes unsung. Our goal with this series is to shine a light on our students by featuring excellence, one achievement at a time.

The UVic LIbraries ePublishing Services Team

New program provides mobile end-of-life support to people in poverty

September, 2019 | UVic News & UVic News

In 2 recent UVic News articles, Dr. Kelli Stajduhar has been recognized for her work in developing a Palliative Outreach Resource Team (PORT) in Victoria.

‘The Palliative Outreach Resource Team (PORT) is a collaboration of the University of Victoria, Island Health, Victoria Cool Aid and Victoria Hospice. PORT acts as a bridge between people with serious illness and their caregivers, palliative care, and other health and social support systems.

The program is built upon lessons learned from a three-year study led by UVic palliative care researcher Kelli Stajduhar, lead investigator of the Equity in Palliative Approaches to Care program with the Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health and the School of Nursing.’

PORT endeavors to fulfill the important need for respectful end-of-life care within vulnerable portions of the Victoria community whereby…

‘Mirroring similar models in Toronto and Calgary, people can self-refer or be referred by their caregivers to a palliative care nurse and a physician who manage the pain and symptoms related to life-limiting illness, support chosen family and caregivers, and provide grief and bereavement support.’

Dr. Stajduhar has published several open access papers that you can access via our institutional repository UVicSpace – you can read them now by clicking here and here.

The Copyright and Scholarly Communications office located in the UVic McPherson library wish PORT much success!