Wellbeing - Health at Work 4.0

The European AAL project wellbeing tackles the issue of health in the workplace: the online platform gives feedback on unhealthy behaviour and provides nutrition advice and stress management.

Short Description

Most jobs require older adults (aged 50+) to spend more than eight hours a day in a seated position. When combined with non-ergonomic workplaces and limited exercise, severe health problems can arise. Furthermore, cognitive capabilities decrease with age, whereas the stress level increases. This leads to a reduced quality of life in older adults due to physical (e.g. back) and psychological (e.g. stress) problems.

Recognising the Needs of Elderly People

The wellbeing system offers a holistic online platform, combining physical exercises, workplace ergonomics, nutritional balance and stress management in order to ensure a healthy work environment, especially focusing on the needs of older employees.

Since older adults work in very diverse areas, the project focuses on the main feature they all have in common: the extensive target group of employees who perform their job in a seated position for a prolonged period of time. Hence, the project is aimed at a broad spectrum of different jobs and target groups, including, for instance, secretaries, office clerks, technicians, lawyers, etc.

Online Platform with 3-D Sensor and Camera

All the modules of the wellbeing platform use a 3-D sensor together with an RGB camera to provide feedback on posture and unhealthy situations (e.g. seated position, poor nutrition, inadequate water intake, etc.).

The motivation to use the platform is increased by combining the exercises in the system with games (so-called exergames) to support a social fun and competitive element, even among colleagues. The ultimate goal of wellbeing is to induce a long-term behavioural change by continuously giving feedback to the end user thus guiding them towards a healthier working style.

Feedback through Interviews and Long-Term Testing

End users are involved throughout the project via telephone interviews, questionnaires and focus groups (approximately 2,000 older adults at their workplace) as well as a twelve-month trial period in order to obtain longterm data (more than 55 older adults).

New findings from the user pilots are continuously integrated into system development in order to facilitate market readiness at the end of the project. Health in the workplace has developed into a widely recognised issue in recent years.

This is also illustrated by the fact that a wide range of potential end users from the banking and insurance sector are actively testing the wellbeing system and provide valuable feedback for the product launch.

Project Partners

Consortium Manager

CogVis Software und Consulting GmbH

Contact Address

Project Coordinator

DI Michael Brandstötter, MSc
E-mail: michael.brandstoetter@cogvis.at