Wearable Bluetooth devices can shed light on the care that nursing home residents are receiving and identify those most in need of social contact, according to new research with more than 250 older adults in four senior care homes in the United Kingdom.
Investigators at the University of Leeds tested the feasibility of collecting social network metrics on people in nursing homes by using Bluetooth devices worn by both staff and residents.
Over two months, they collected data on more than 204,000 interactions between people. Just 2% of all interactions recorded by the devices lasted longer than two minutes, and more than 65% of those longer interactions were between staff members. Moreover, in only one of the four care homes did residents have as many social interactions as staff.
Overall, most interactions between people occurred in communal areas such as dining rooms and lounges.
The data also allowed researchers to identify staff and residents with the strongest and weakest social connections to their communities, based on the frequency and length of their interactions with other people.
Full findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
From the July/August 2024 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
