Smart Care Technology for Self-Management of Diabetes in Older Adults: Applications, Progress, and Barriers

Diabetes mellitus is a serious chronic disease that threatens the health of the elderly. Effective self-management, i.e. continuous daily health management responsibilities undertaken by individuals in the course of disease, including regular medication, blood glucose monitoring, reasonable diet and moderate exercise, is the key to controlling blood glucose, delaying complications and improving quality of life. However, elderly diabetics face many obstacles to self-management. At the physiological level, aging-related cognitive decline, vision deterioration, hearing loss, and reduced hand dexterity impair the frequency and quality of self-management behaviors; At the psychological and cognitive level, some patients have diabetes-related psychological pain, insufficient disease cognition and low self-efficacy; at the social support level, empty nest elderly lack family supervision and emotional support, and patients in rural areas have limited access to medical resources; At the level of health literacy, the health literacy level of elderly patients is generally low, and there are limitations in mastering disease knowledge and treatment programs. Multiple obstacles stack up, making the self-management of elderly diabetic patients at a low level for a long time.