Preventing cognitive decline, sedentariness and malnutrition: the DOREMI approach

All countries in Europe are experiencing an ageing of their populations, with a decrease in the number of people of working age per retiree. Health trends among the elderly are mixed: severe disability is declining in some countries but increasing in others, while mild disability and chronic disease are generally increasing. As a consequence, long-term care costs are certain to increase with the ageing of the population, unless appropriate measures are implemented and elderly people empowered to follow them. According to the University College Dublin Institute of Food and Health, three are the most notable health promotion and disease prevention programs that target the main causes of morbidity and premature mortality: malnutrition, sedentariness, and cognitive decline, conditions that affect the quality of life of elderly people and drive to disease progression. These three features represent the target areas in the DOREMI (Decrease of cOgnitive decline, malnutRition and sedEntariness by elderly empowerment in lifestyle Management and social Inclusion) Project. The project aims at developing a systemic solution for elderly, able to prolong the functional and cognitive capacity by empowering, stimulating and unobtrusively monitoring the daily activities according to well-defined "Active Ageing" lifestyle protocols. The project joins the concept of prevention centered on the elderly, characterized by an unified vision of being elderly today, namely, a promotion of the health by a constructive interaction among mind, body and social engagement.