Introduction: Europe’s population is ageing rapidly and steadily on a daily basis, which poses a significant challenge for the humankind. Population ageing occurs when there is an increase in the proportion of elderly people in the population. By definition, the elderly are people over the age of 65 and their proportion in Slovenia is 20.9%. Injuries and falls occur more often among the elderly. They can be avoided by taking preventive measures, for instance, with the help of modern digital technologies. Purpose: The purpose of this diploma thesis is to examine the use of digital technology for preventing falls among the elderly in the home environment, since falls represent a major economic and public health problem, as well as to determine the role of nurses in using digital technologies for preventing falls among the elderly. Methods: A descriptive working method was used. We reviewed domestic and foreign literature, available in databases CINAHL with full text and MEDLINE. The following search strings with keywords in English were used: digital technology, ict, wearable, elderly, geriatric, older adult, aged, falls prevention, preventing falls, prevent falls, reduce falls. The literature was being collected from December 2020 until October 2021. Overall, 384 articles were reviewed in the above-mentioned databases, and 18 articles were included in the final analysis. Results: The results were divided into four areas: the first area consists of research findings related to technologies for physical activity monitoring, i.e., a smart necklace and virtual reality exercises; the second area covers smart clothing, such as a smart belt and smart shoes; the third area is the adaptation of the living environment, which includes the concept of a smart home and smart floors; the last area focuses on stand-alone sensors, where wearable sensors, radar technology, fall detection systems and mobile applications are presented in more detail. Discussion and conclusion: A wide range of digital technologies is available to make life easier for the elderly, which prevents falls in the home environment. While reviewing the literature, we detected the use of digital technology for this purpose in Slovenia. We discovered a Slovenian project Dom IRIS and an advanced nursing call system NurseCare, which offers several software solutions for its users.
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