Inferring Social Isolation in Older Adults through Ambient Intelligence and Social Networking Sites

Authors

  • Wilfrido Campos National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)
  • Alicia Martinez National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)
  • Wendy Sanchez National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)
  • Hugo Estrada Management of New Product Development and Services, INFOTEC
  • Jesus Favela Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education, CICESE
  • Joaquin Perez National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13053/cys-20-1-2193

Keywords:

Predictive model, social isolation, older adults, ambient intelligence, social networking site.

Abstract

Early diagnosis of social isolation in older adults can prevent physical and cognitive impairment or further impoverishment of their social network. This diagnosis is usually performed by personal and periodic application of psychological assessment instruments. This situation encourages the development of novel approaches able to monitor risk situations in social interactions to obtain early diagnosis and implement appropriate measures. This paper presents the development of a prediction model of social isolation in older adults through Ambient Intelligence (AmI) and Social Networking Sites (SNSs). The predictive model has been evaluated in terms of its accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, predictive values. This paper also presents the results of an experimental test applying the proposed approach with real users, obtaining a prediction accuracy of 87% and a type II error rate of 15%. The proposed model will benefit institutions interested in developing technological solutions to detect early stages of social isolation, resulting in improving the quality of life of older adults.

Author Biographies

Wilfrido Campos, National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)

is a Ph.D. student at CENIDET, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. He received his M.Cs. degree in Computing from Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAGro), Guerrero, Mexico. His research interests are data mining, modeling, and information technology in software development.

Alicia Martinez, National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)

is a research professor at CENIDET, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. She received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Technical University of Valencia, Spain, and the Trento University, Italy. Her research interests are affective computing, ubiquitous computing, organizational modeling, and ontologies.

Wendy Sanchez, National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)

is a Ph.D. student at CENIDET, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. She received her M.Cs. degree from CENIDET, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Her research interests are data mining, AmI, behavior patterns and information technology in software development.

Hugo Estrada, Management of New Product Development and Services, INFOTEC

is a computer science researcher at Information and Documentation Fund for Industry, INFOTEC, Mexico City, Mexico. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Technical University of Valencia, Spain, and the Trento University, Italy. His research interests are organizational modeling, semantic Web, and ontologies.

Jesus Favela, Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education, CICESE

is a research professor at Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education, Baja California, Mexico. He received his Ph.D. degree from MIT—Massachusetts Institute of Technology—Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. His research interests are mobile and ubiquitous computing, medical informatics, and collaborative systems.

Joaquin Perez, National Centre for Research and Technology Development (CENIDET)

is a research professor in Software Engineering Area at CENIDET, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Technological Institute and of Higher Studies of Monterrey, Morelos. His research interests are software engineering, data mining, algorithms, and mathematical modeling.

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Published

2016-03-31

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 1 (2016): Thematic Issue: Topic Trends in Computing Research (Guest Editor: Claudia P. Ayala)

Section

Articles

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