Potential impact of the proposed solution on Quality of life

A significant effort has been devoted to address the proper implementation of the proposed
solution in order to provide the maximum benefit to the targeted group of end-users. The proposal
justifies the resulting improvements of older adults quality of life both directly and indirectly. This will
be achieved through easier access to services, easier participation in communities of interest or increased
ability to be direct users of technologies. The platform is expected to have a significant social and ethical
impact, delivering a new health care concept that will encourage a high participation among older adults.

4.1 Improving Quality of Life for end-users
As a consequence of the ageing of European population, recent numbers show that there is a
steady increase in the morbidity from age-related chronic diseases, leading not only to a poor quality of
life for older individuals but also to major economic losses for the European Union states. In order to
address the issue regarding the ageing of European population, various dietary approaches will produce a
significant impact on the end users quality of life.
The proposed solution represents an innovative approach regarding the nutritional care of older
adults from the European Union. Proper nutrition represents a key factor that can improve the quality
of life for aged individuals not only by preventing or delaying the onset of age-related chronic diseases
but also by attenuating their effects.
Given the fact that the targeted group of end-users is represented by older adults, the proposal
aims to simplify the access to specialized nutritional services. It is essential for end-users suffering from
various forms of disability to be able to access valuable nutritional content in order to prevent or attenuate
the effects of age-related chronic diseases. Moreover, the platform is designed in such a way that it will
serve as a communication channel between nutrition specialists and patients from the European Union.
However, nutritional information should not be regarded as the sole factor that will produce a
significant improvement on the quality of life. The platform will enable its end-users to integrate into an
interactive community of interest, providing them an increased ability to be the direct users of online
technology. Research shows (O'Brien) that older individuals, being part of an online community, showed
significant improvement on quality of life, depression, social support and self-efficacy, as a result of
being less isolated.
Also, the proposed project represents a cost-efficient solution for its end-users, given the fact that
the provided services can be accessed for a small annual subscription or even for free. This way, older
adults will be able to easily benefit from the information provided by reputable nutrition specialists from
the European Union and in the same time be part of a steadily growing, active and supportive community
without being financially constrained. Therefore, a new, more efficient nutritional care model will be
achieved and implemented in order to address the issue regarding the quality of life of aged individuals.

4.2 The aimed service models

The access to proper nutritional information can represent a significant issue for older adults. The
contemporary service-models in the targeted areas of the proposal prove to be highly inefficient, having
a significant negative impact on the quality of life of the elderly and on the process of ageing itself. For a
patient, the experience of being examined by a nutrition specialist may prove to be extremely time and
energy consuming, therefore making this approach very hard to put into practice. This leads to the fact
that the vast majority of the aged individuals have an improper diet in comparison to their real needs,
resulting in a poor health condition and quality of life.
The main objective of the proposal is to address this issue and enable the end-users to have a
simplified access to valuable dietary approaches provided by reputable nutrition specialists from the
European Union, leading to a new care service concept. Given the fact that the information technology
has been steadily developed over the last two decades, the vast majority of the European population has
access to the Internet, granting a significantly easier access to information and communication.
The proposal addresses the necessary enabling elements to ensure access of the targeted end-
users to the proposed solution. Information technology is not only used to create and maintain a
communication channel between nutrition specialists and older individuals but also to form a steadily
growing, active and supportive community that will provide the needed help for the elderly.
Moreover, this innovative concept will help the end-users to more easily keep in touch with their
nutrition specialist and other fellow members of the community, therefore remaining more socially active
and less isolated, while receiving the proper nutritional care they need in order to benefit from a healthy
ageing process and to prevent the onset and the effects of chronic diseases.
4.3 Social and ethical impact

4.4 Other user segments
The target groups of the AAL programme have in general a large diversity in user needs and capabilities,
and different organisational conditions to operate within. If relevant can the project idea and
implementation be modified to accommodate other user segments or organisational environments than
included in the primary intention?