Personalized Digital Instructor Based on Arduino for Buerger Exercises in Older Adults with Diabetes: Feasibility Study

Abstract

Diabetes in older adults can lead to complications such as peripheral artery disease, neuropathy, and foot ulcers. Accessing treatments can be challenging due to limited resources. Implementing low-cost preventive therapies like Buerger's exercises is essential. However, these exercises must be standardized. The purpose was to develop an Arduino-based electronic system as a gerontechnological tool for homologating Buergers exercises and facilitating their execution by older adults with diabetes mellitus. The Intervention Theory by Sidani guided the development of this study. A feasibility and pilot study with one group, pretest/posttest design, was conducted in twenty older adults with HbA1c 8% and their caregivers in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, from November 2020 to June 2021. Feasibility was measured with an acceptability and satisfaction instrument; the ankle-arm index was measured with 8 Hertz Doppler and neuropathy symptoms with a modified Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Score. The mean age was 67.50 5.61 years old in older adults and 48.32 16.26 in caregivers. The digital instructor was accepted by 73.3% (11 older adults) without any issues; 47.4% (9 older adults) and 26.3% (6 caregivers) expressed high levels of satisfaction. Participants noted significant benefits such as improved peripheral circulation, reduced pain, numbness, and tingling. These promising results underscore the potential of the electronic system to make a noticeable improvement in the lives of older adults with diabetes mellitus and their caregivers. The device was meticulously designed to be user-friendly and accessible, making it ideal gerontechnological tool to manage health at home.