Affiliation: OHSU Layton Center
Funding Period: 2010 - 2011
Funding Source: NIA – Roybal Center
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The overall objective of this two-year pilot is to develop new real-time methodology for detecting changes in social interactions. A large self-contained high-rise elderly community, Mirabella Portland (MP), is currently being built in collaboration with ORCATECH and adjacent to OHSU. Over 250 households will move into this new community from single-family homes during 2010. This pilot study takes advantage of this unique cohort to observe whether changes in levels of social interaction can be detected by new technology-based assessment methods. This work will prepare the field for applying this new way of measuring social interactions to: 1) future intervention studies targeted to enhance cognitive functions through social interactions, and 2) future prevention studies which track the trajectory of social interactions as a means to detect early decline in cognitive function or health.
Specific aims for this pilot study are:
- To establish new real-time objective metrics for assessing social interactions taking advantage of unobtrusive monitoring of activity
- To determine if one can detect short-term change in social interactions upon transition from one community to another.