Project Overview

The Morning Star Lodge, in collaboration with their community partner, Star Blanket Cree Nation, will utilize 3 new technologies to be introduced to Indigenous older adults in a research project to monitor health status. Indigenous older adults living in rural communities have multiple health issues that may lead to early onset dementia, yet they lack the accessibility to and readiness for new technologies to monitor health data and health status. Health education is needed to understand the ways nutrition, exercise and self-management of health issues can impact multiple diseases (primarily around diabetes and heart disease) and how these health issues can be related to early dementia onset. Working with our community partner we will introduce and evaluate 3 new technologies to thirty participants to monitor diabetes and age-related health information, including blood glucose, blood pressure, weight, and other data which includes a non-invasive blood glucose monitor to provide needle free diabetes care; a blood pressure monitor; and a smart scale/body analyzer to measure body fat, water percentage, muscle mass and bone body mass index (BMI). The impact of using these technologies to monitor health data and promote healthy behaviours and healthy lifestyles will be documented.