Smart textiles to help older people deal with long-term pain

Associate Professor Nils-Krister Persson, who is responsible for research within the Smart Textiles Technology Lab, explained, "Pain is a cause of many fall accidents among older people. The focus of the project is therefore on fall prevention by counteracting pain in older people. The intention is to make its usage easy for the patients themselves, relatives, and caregivers through the advantage of textile's being naturally present in everyday life, and as textiles are intimately associated with well-being."

The goal is for the older people to want to use the technology, because as with any instructions from a doctor or other prescribing healthcare staff, compliance is central. But there are many reasons why a patient will not follow doctor's orders; for example, something is too cumbersome, there are side effects, or the costs are too high. In this project, a type of geriatric technology based on textiles will be investigated and proposed. Textiles are familiar to everyone, are easy to use, and have a low cost, which thus increases compliance.

Pain is a very complex area, and therefore the researchers in the project will develop three different prototypes to define which type of pain can best be counteracted. This is done through clinical studies on patients with the developed smart textiles. The goal during the project is to produce sufficient knowledge that there is a firm foundation for further commercialisation.

MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: University of Borås