Using Sensor Technology to Monitor Disruptive Behavior of Persons With Dementia

An anticipated increase in the number of people withdementia will lead to an escalation in health and socialcare spending unless it is altered by a major breakthroughin treatment or prevention. Behavioral symptomsassociated with dementia (BSD) are some of themost difficult problems faced by caregivers. Severalmeasurement issues have hampered the progress oftimely intervention for BSD. Sensor technology mayoffer a solution to the early detection of BSD that willguide the development of tailored interventions. Similarly,a clinical conceptualization of BSD and its measurementissues can facilitate the engineering of sensornetworks and algorithms for activity recognition. Multidisciplinarycollaboration and the consideration of ethicalissues will improve the adoption of these technologiesin healthcare research.