Envision
Investigators
Professor Alastair Macdonald, The Glasgow School of Art
Professor Sandy Nicol, University of Strathclyde
Team
Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity (SPARC)
Learning in Later Life (University of Strathclyde)
Age Concern Scotland
Journey Associates
Aims and objectives
The objectives were for the researchers to determine if and to what extent this new visual and dynamic format of envisioning data
deepens understanding, within each of the separate disciplines, of the experience of ageing particularly with reference to the stresses on muscles and joints in older people during daily living and working activities and how this affects health, performance, motivation, and quality of life
facilitates new insights into age-related mobility and capability issues, the experience of ageing in the 60+, 70+ and 80+ age groups
facilitates discourse across a range of relevant disciplines concerned with health, rehabilitation, design, and quality of life issues in older adults
facilitates and empowers older ‘lay’ people to participate in the process of research through discourse with specialist disciplines by contributing with their own perspective and life experiences
has the potential to improve practice and recommendations for
rehabilitation and care plans
design practice
planning for extended work and leisure activities in later life
Further objectives were
to develop and utilise processes and tools that will allow older adults as lay individuals to participate and contribute to policies and practices that influence their quality of life and well-being
to demonstrate the advantages of envisioning data in a dynamic form to promote cross-disciplinary discourse
to develop the understanding of the experiences of ageing through the use of this innovative tool
to utilise this tool to support innovative interdisciplinary research groupings
to use this process as a means of improving and innovating in areas of policy and practice that influence wellbeing and quality of life issues for working and living activities in older adults
to develop a process, and tool, and involve a range of disciplines and individuals that can explore qualitative issues arising from quantitative data
Design
Phase one
Processing of biomechanical data already acquired from 84 subjects each performing 11 daily living activities into the required format for the visualisation software.
Phase two
These biomechanical data sets were utilised for processing using software scripts to produce video animations for each activity by each individual. A selection of these were made for the focus group sessions described in phase five.
Phase three
Client profiles were developed for those in the 60+, 70+ and 80+ categories who were selected, as far as possible, to represent a mixture of sex, different social background, and ability - from active to frail - corresponding to the age cohorts of the individuals represented in the data described above.
Representatives of the range of specialist disciplines, ie, bioengineers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, human factors consultants, designers, psychologists, a gerontologist, healthcare and nursing specialists, were selected from established research groups and networks.
Phase four
Interviews of clients and professionals were conducted to identify key issues affecting mobility and quality of life in all separate groups.
Phase five
Focus groups provided a forum for showing the visualised data animations to the different groups separately and together, to use these as a platform and means for prompting focussed. This was followed by a qualitative analysis of Phase four and Phase five data.
Phase six
A SPARC-supported two day national workshop and seminar in late autumn 2008. This was an essential platform for disseminating, obtaining feedback on, and for validating the initial findings obtained as a result of the process described above.
Stills from visualisations showing comparison of three different individuals lifting an object from a high to a low shelf.
Left: 74 year old female with no apparent problems – note knees and hips are shown green
Middle: 81 year old male, osteoarthritis of knees – note red and orange indicated at the knees
Right: 67 year old male, history of back problems and history of fractures – note red and orange at hips.
Stills from animations.
Comparison of a 67 year old male with a history of back problems and of fractures rising from a chair in two different ways.
Top row: using arm rests
Bottom row: without using arm rests
Policy implications
In the development of an innovative manner of visualising scientific data acquired from older adults performing daily living tasks, the key research issues were to determine to what extent this new visual and dynamic format of envisioning data helps
deepen understanding within each of the separate stakeholder disciplines of issues affecting mobility and quality of life
facilitate discourse about and develop new insights into these issues across the range of disciplines
facilitate older people to articulate a narrative of their experiences of what is being viewed
empower older ‘lay’ people and non-academics to engage in the research discourse, and elevate their status
contribute to improved and more holistic practices;
assist with planning for increasing age and extended activity in later life, rehabilitation and care plans, and designs of the built environment
We expected this work to inform and facilitate change in policy and practice concerned with the general wellbeing of older adults, particularly in the design (in the broadest sense) of their environments and in planning a number of aspects of their healthcare, through the greater involvement of older adults themselves, and through increased interdisciplinary research communication and practice.
With respect to the ‘new dynamics of ageing and the changing patterns of living and working’, we feel these insights were essential to inform what is safe, achievable, desirable and will contribute to the general wellbeing of older individuals, particularly in scenarios of the extension to the length of working life, daily living, and in a range of activities such as exercise regimes in later life which have a bearing on the ‘autonomy and independence’ of older people.