UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A boom in the elderly population--led by declining birth rates and increasing longevity--has led to significant healthcare challenges. To address this critical issue, John M. Carroll, Distinguished Professor at Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), and Mary Beth Rosson, professor and associate dean for education of IST, have been awarded a grant of $663,090 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) inter-agency Smart and Connected Health program. The grant will fund studies on timebanking interactions to expand and extend opportunities for elderly people to live independent and productive lives in cooperation with their communities.
Timebanking is a model of person-to-person engagement in which people exchange services that are assessed not by market value, but by the time it takes to complete the tasks. Volunteers are matched with people and opportunities in need of their skills. The project analyzes the co-production of healthy living--reciprocal services that benefit both parties--such as when two people take a walk or play cards together. Many timebanking interactions are co-productions, and these exchanges can be particularly powerful in helping both the giver and the receiver to become more active and engaged.
“I’m very excited about the chance to directly investigate the co-production of health,” said Carroll. “When people do and experience things together, there is a social multiplier with respect to benefits. This can turn our assumptions about health costs on their heads.”
According to Carroll, there are not enough young people in the population to address the healthcare needs of the elderly by simply increasing current approaches. Beyond the numbers, it remains unclear if scaling up is even desirable. By investigating the long-term data of timebanking participation, the researchers will measure how timebanking and other peer-to-peer infrastructures can facilitate social activities and enhance well-being, resilience, and sense of coherence and community in the elderly population.
The project builds upon two previous NSF grants on mobile and context aware timebanking infrastructures awarded to Penn State in collaboration with Carnegie-Mellon University and the Palo Alto Research Center. Tina Yuan, formerly of Cornell University, and Benjamin Hanrahan, formerly of Xerox Research Center Europe, have also joined the project.
“The study site for this project is our own community,” Carroll said. “We are excited to be able to work together with neighbors to explore healthy living as a collaborative project facilitated by information technology.”
The research team has partnered with Aging in Place/Centre County and with The Village at Penn State to investigate different living arrangements among the elderly. Further partnerships are being developed with other local groups.
The study will analyze current practices for healthy living among the elderly, and then identify opportunities for timebanking support of these practices. Based on the data, timebanking tools and infrastructure will be designed, deployed, and evaluated to enhance co-production of health in elderly communities.
“Elderly people contribute significant social assets to many organizations, corporations and local communities,” said Carroll. “Engaging in personally meaningful activity directly contributes to enjoying longer and healthier lives.”