New technologies are playing a big role in helping seniors improve their mental health, from virtual reality to virtual assistants and other apps. Now, the latest version of the Apple watch is adding new features to improve both mental and vision health, both areas where senior living residents often have significant deficits.
The new Apple watchOS 10 helps people track their emotions and moods, and improve vision health by measuring time spent outdoors. The watch’s Health app includes assessments for depression and anxiety, and lets users connect with local mental health resources to get counseling or other services to help. Users can scroll through multidimensional shapes to choose how they are feeling and describe their feelings.
Another new feature measures users’ time spent outdoors, which is linked to vision health. More time outdoors decreases risk of myopia, or nearsightedness, according to the company. The latest version of the watch also will include a new feature in the medications app where reminders are sent 30 minutes after the scheduled time users were supposed to take a medication.
Wearable devices such as the Apple watch are increasingly being used to improve seniors’ mental well-being. In one recent study, subjects wore an Apple Watch that measured their heart rate variability and resting heart rate to help predict resilience, an individual’s ability to cope with adversity and other psychological factors.
Ninety-three percent of US adults plan to age in place, which increases the need for health-related technologies like wearables, according to a study from U.S. News & World Report’s 360 Reviews. Wearable health trackers ranked among the survey’s top six devices that have made it easier to age in place, along with medical or health-related apps, service-related apps including food and grocery delivery, smart home technologies, hearing assistance-related devices and medical alert devices.
Some 53% of US adults aged 55 and older use some type of assistive or health-related technology, according to the survey, with two of the most widely used technologies including medical or health-related mobile apps (25%) and wearable medical or health-related trackers (17%).
