Smart Homes and Quality of Life for the Elderly: A Systematic Review

Across the globe, the increasing percentage of elderly people is a reason of growing concern among the research fraternity. A lot of research is currently going on in providing these elderly people with a smart environment or smart home that can promote their independence, overall sense of well-being and enable them to lead a better quality of life. The primary objective of this research paper is to provide with a concise systematic review that explores the influence these smart-homes can have on the living quality among the elderly. We identified a total of 4,512 initial publications related to smart-homes for the elderly across a variety of valid scientific databases. Out of these, 31 met our inclusion criterion to be included for the final review stage by 2 independent researchers. Depending upon the functionality we classify the smart-homes into 5 broad application areas that can serve the elderly. Our findings show that overall these elderly people have a positive attitude towards a smart-home, especially for the purpose of health-monitoring and independent assisted living. However, they also have serious concerns regarding their privacy and the security provided by such smart systems along with the fear of social-isolation that might happen due to an increased dependence on technology.

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