家有一老，要有一寶 - 智原科技有限公司 Intelligent Design Technology Limited

According to the Year-end Population Estimate for 2021, the aging trend in the population continued. In the past 10 years, The proportion of elderly people, who aged 65 and over, rose from 13.8% to 20.5%. Public pays close attention to the loneliness issue among elderly, and find out some possible reasons.

Loss of their loved ones;
Lack of social activities;
3. Limitation of daily routine and entertainment due to health problem or impaired mobility;
Disappearance of the things that are familiar to them.

In addition, there is another concern of elderly living issues. Inadequate residential areas have been a problem in Hong Kong for many years. As spaces limitation in housing, the elderly rarely live with their children. With the number of multigenerational families decreases, the number of elderly living alone increases.

According to the Population By-Census in 2016 (Thematic Report: Older Persons), in the past 10 years, the proportion of older persons living with their children decreased from 53.4% to 48.5%. On the contrary, the proportion of older persons living alone increased from 11.6% to 13.1%. It reflects the aging population is worsening and the needs for elderly homes are surging.

Despite rapid technological change involves, among others, and communication between people can even break the limitations of time and space, elderly typically would spend more and more time on studying how to use. Lack of knowledge in using electronic gadgets would become the barrier with their family members when they are communicating. Thus, many of them are suffering from social isolation. Such loneliness will influence elderly’s health and mental well-being. Some research and studies have been pointed some common illnesses, like dementia, cardiovascular diseases, depression, or even death. Those are associated with social loneliness.

What we can do to address the loneliness of the elderly:

Initiate the conversation and listen to them;
Encourage to join the community activities for enlarging their social circle;
Assist in finding their interests to determine their self-esteem;
Accompany when they have a medical appointment.

In order to help the elderly to address loneliness and stay healthy physically and mentally, Intelligent Design Technology Limited has launched a Smart Companion Robot, Fitbo. It provides a wide range of entertainment and leisure activities, to let the elderly feel accompanied and their health can be maintained. Besides providing entertainment and daily information, Fitbo can also facilitate communication by video calls with family members and lead them in doing different kinds of fitness exercises. Moreover, the elderly can communicate and interact with Fitbo regularly and eventually become a friend of the elderly.