A step towards a happy, independent, and carefree life!! :)
Elderly form around 8.6% of our country's population. An analysis of morbidity patterns by age clearly indicates that the elderly experience a greater burden of ailments (which the National Sample Survey Organisation defines as illness, sickness, injury, and poisoning) compared to other age groups (see National Sample Survey Organisation, 2006, Fig. 1), across genders and residential locations. The elderly most frequently suffer from cardiovascular illness, circulatory diseases, and cancers, while the non-elderly face a higher risk of mortality from infectious and parasitic diseases (Alam, 2000; Kosuke and Samir, 2004; Shrestha, 2000).
FIGURE 15-1Burden of illness type among Indians
These figures clearly indicate that older adults with multiple chronic conditions have to go through the complex task of medication management involving multiple medications of varying doses at different times. A survey was conducted by NCBI in The United States on ninety-six frail older adult participants who used the medication dispensing device for 12 months. The results of this survey showed that Nearly all participants perceived the medication dispensing device as very easy to use, very reliable and helpful in the management of their medications. 84% of participants expressed a desire to use the machine in the future.
In our experience, we've seen our grandparents and other elders struggling to find the right medicine and to keep a check on time to take them. They either need the assistance of other family members who can remind them to take the meds or are dependent on someone else who can give them the meds on time. This leads our group to think that those who stay with families do have someone who cares to give medication on time, but those in old age homes and those who live alone are void of this advantage. In today's world full of hustle where no one does not even have time for self-care, often snags the dependent elders. This doesn't mean that the families do not care for the aged, but unintentionally also health of the elderly is compromised. These observations have led us to design a Medicine Dispenser for the elderly. Our aim is to design the product in a way which is easy to use, cheap and is low on the maintenance side which reminds the elderly to take medicines and also the medicines which they need to take. Our market study shows that such products are not currently available in India, but we do have some less advanced alternatives available. This product is based on innovating the existing dispensers in the market in a way that they make the life of the elderly easier by being more functional and also make them less dependent on others for their medication.
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