A study was published recently in JMIR mHealth and uHealth. Researchers evaluated a monitoring method that integrated wrist-worn accelerometers with ankle-worn Bluetooth beacons to track individuals with dementia in a long-term residential unit.
The system continuously recorded physical activity intensity, walking bouts, sleep efficiency, and social interactions based on indoor location tracking. The researchers found the beacon-based methodology to be feasible and highly reliable for identifying clinical behaviours, such as wandering, with minimal intrusion.