DIY Health

Project supervisors: Ayse Arslanargin, Tjeerd Andringa, Esther de Haas

According to the 2015 UN’s World Population Ageing Report the number of people aged 80 years or over, “the oldest-old persons”, is projected to triple towards 2050. Current young adults will be our future centenarians. How to ensure that they will attain high age in good health?

The global burden of disease is increasingly being determined by chronic, non-transmissible diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. Many of those diseases are strongly related to unhealthy lifestyles. Taking into account that exposure to risk factors and the development of many chronic health problems already take place years before an individual presents to a healthcare professional and that our healthcare resources are limited, promotion and protection of health is not exclusively the field of healthcare professionals.

Technological advances, such as wearable medical devices, biosensors on-a-chip and e-health, could be used to improve population health by creating awareness and stimulating individuals to take control of their own health. Self-tracking with wearable devices and health apps is core to the growing Quantified Self Movement and mobile technologies form one of the pillars of Obama’s recent Precision Medicine Initiative.

You will be entrusted the task: How to use recent developments in technology to promote the health of our future centenarians?