(Left to right): Steven Handler M.D., medical director of the Healthy Home Lab; Yong Choi, assistant professor of Health Informatics; Everette James, associate vice chancellor for health policy and planning, director of the Health Policy Institute; Pamela Toto, director of the Healthy Home Lab; ACHA Homestead Apartments residents Eunice Rivers and Percy Reese; Laura Poskin, executive director of Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh; Frank Aggazio, executive director of Allegheny County Housing Authority
Matt Ammon, director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, visited Pittsburgh on Wednesday, October 23, to formally announce a new project and deliver a $1 million HUD grant to the University of Pittsburgh Healthy Home Lab, an interprofessional initiative led by the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
This grant represents the first in the United States to study technology-based options for people aged 62-plus in public housing and focuses on helping older adults remain at home and age in place.
The ceremony unveiled the partnership among the Pitt Healthy Home Lab, the Allegheny County Housing Authority (ACHA) and Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh for the HUD-awarded project, titled “Moving Beyond Home Modifications: Using Smart Home Technology to Support Safe Living for Older Adults.” The funding comes from HUD’s OLCHH Technical Studies Grant Program, which Ammon directs.
These agencies and researchers are coming together to see how technology can help low-income older adults in public housing avoid falls and other injuries.
“Our Healthy Homes Technical Studies program funds research to improve knowledge of housing-related health and safety hazards and ways to mitigate those risks. This ground-breaking Pitt Healthy Home Lab project will test emerging technology and develop practical solutions to help older residents in HUD-supported housing successfully age-in-place,” said Ammon.
Pamela Toto, professor of occupational therapy and director of Pitt’s Healthy Home Lab, explained that unsafe or inaccessible environments can be especially challenging for a growing population of older adults who are renters. “Older renters may face a multitude of barriers to aging in place including but not limited to cost, limited accessibility and lack of control over the number and types of modifications permitted. Our research at the Healthy Home Lab demonstrates that smart technology can overcome many of these barriers in a cost-effective manner. We hope that our work here in Pittsburgh will provide a model that can be applied to rental housing for older adults across the U.S.,” said Toto.
Steven Handler, M.D., associate professor of geriatric medicine and medical director of the Healthy Home Lab, emphasized the importance of addressing slips at home. “Falls are the leading cause of injury among older adults, and 80% of those falls occur in the home. Older adults are particularly worried about falls because they recognize that they can lead to both short- and long-term disability. Sometimes, the disability is so severe, that the older adult can no longer live at home, and may need institutional care such as assisted living or even nursing home care,” Handler noted.
Previous research suggests that home modifications such as safe flooring, adequate lighting, level-entry showers, grab bars and handrails, can reduce falls by as much as 38%. While these home modifications are an effective way to reduce falls risk, emerging smart home safety technology such as smart lighting, falls-detecting hardware and software, and even medication management systems can offer additional cost-effective health and safety benefits.
Handler further explained the importance of medication management: “Polypharmacy, or the use of multiple medications, is a common risk factor for falls. Technologies like smart pill dispensers and mobile alerts can help older adults manage their medications more effectively. These technologies can help older adults take the correct medication at the correct time which can reduce the risk of falls.”
The project is co-led by Yong Choi, assistant professor of health informatics, and Dr. Handler. Together with an interdisciplinary team, they will collaborate with community partners, including occupational therapists, engineers, computer scientists, policy experts, and health informaticians. The team will test several smart-home safety technologies in the Healthy Home Lab and engage with local older adults to design and pilot solutions that can be implemented in public and rental housing nationwide.
“Smart-home technologies offer incredible promise for enhancing the safety and independence of older adults,” said Choi. “Through the Healthy Home Lab, we aim to identify, test, and refine solutions that not only meet the highest standards for safety and usability but also directly address the real-world needs of older adults living in rental housing. What sets this project apart is the active involvement of older adults in shaping these technologies—our solutions are not developed in isolation but with direct input from the very individuals who will benefit from them. This participatory approach ensures that the technology we implement is both practical and impactful.”
Choi continued, “Our ultimate goal is to create a replicable model that combines emerging smart home technology with thoughtful design, all focused on supporting older adults to age safely and comfortably in their homes, no matter the limitations of their rental environment.”
Health Informatics Assistant Professor Yong Choi demonstrates smart home technology.
The Healthy Home Lab grant team will identify technologies suitable for rental and public housing units and evaluate usability, performance and safety. Selected smart home safety technology will be set up and tested in the Healthy Home Lab and local older adult volunteers in the Healthy Home Lab Research Registry and will provide feedback on the devices. Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh will help researchers hold community meetings and surveys to seek input from local older adults, and the Allegheny County Housing Authority will conduct interviews with residents of the ACHA Homestead Elderly Community Apartments to ensure “participatory design” of the program. In the final phase of the project, the team will pilot a novel smart-home safety technology solution in the homes of 12 Homestead Apartment residents.
This grant constitutes the Healthy Home Lab’s second technical study supported by HUD. Because of the public-housing housing focus of the grant, the visit was held in the resident commons area of the ACHA Homestead Apartments. ACHA officials as well as older adult residents living in the apartments participated in the event.
Published: October 25, 2024