A Systematic Review of Proposals for the Social Integration of Elderly People Using Ambient Intelligence and Social Networking Sites

Providing solutions to current issues associated with an aging population has become a major challenge for the scientific community. In late adulthood, social isolation issues are the most frequent and the most threatening for the independent living and cognitive health of elderly adults. In this context, ambient intelligence (AmI) and social networking sites (SNSs) can promote independent living and social integration, improve their health, reduce the chances for developing cognitive decline, and ultimately prevent earlier death. The aim of this paper was to review the literature about how AmI and SNS technologies have been applied in the social integration of elderly adults. Therefore, a systematic review was conducted, which analyzed and classified computational approaches to address the issues of social isolation and social integration of elderly adults. This study revealed a wide variety of research works that are based on AmI and SNS technologies to keep older adults socially active. The paper also identifies the main technological resources and strategies to encourage social integration in this segment of the population. We concluded that this research field is still emerging and there is room for significant contributions.