Development and Implementation of a Community-Based Platform for Promoting Health and Physical Fitness in the Elderly Community

This research aims to develop and implement a community-based platform for promoting health and physical fitness in the community, to assist the elderly to promote physical fitness. The research project, continuation of the National Science Council in the previous research, named as “a foresight design to help the health promotion of the elderly”, proposed the concept of iFit (Appendix I) for continues development, and plan to implement in the elderly community. The iFit is an integrated fitness test device and summarized the frailty testing items from the National Health Council. It integrate the traditional six fitness tests into one healthcare platform in which the test items include Functional Reach test, Balance test, Weakness test, Reaction Time test, Slowness test and Grip Strength test. The iFit is designed to be placed at community and to be able to give users some suggestions and guidance on choosing right fitness devices and equipment and doing in a right way based on their test result at fitness centre. Through the iFit, the users are easy to obtain their health condition, monitor the quality of their exercise, manage their exercise programs and finally improve their health condition. Therefore, this study will be divided into two stages in two years. The first stage is the actual development and implementation iFit into the elderly community, in-depth research about frailty testing and sorting out the frailty of test items with the norm, the process of testing for domestic, adding the concept of frailty detection of the game design, so that the elderly can detect frailty of the way of entertainment. At the same time, the elderly technology acceptance by the research surveys and results analysis, and further help to modify the system design or the content of the game design. The second stage is focusing on the analysis of the physiological data of the elderly, increase physical fitness exercise prescription for the game in order to provide the elderly an alternative exercise, and expect to build the community through fitness platform type can help the elderly get through the physical degradation of the movement of customized recommendations. Platform will also have the ability of the elderly physiological data analysis, and follow the ACSM fitness facilities, standards, and for related and clinicians to design appropriate exercise prescription degradation and import platform game. By proposed game developed to provide older people an alternative exercise, and complete systems integration of physical fitness and to promote community-based platform to promote physical fitness to help the elderly get through the physical degradation of customized exercise prescription. Finally, this research expects that the elderly is able to develop a regular exercise habits by the planning of exercise prescription and can maintain their physical fitness, boost the immune system, slow degradation, thus to improve the lives of its independent function, to improve the quality of life.

Project ID:PE10007-0442
External Project ID:NSC100-2410-H182-023-MY2