(image: Korea Bizwire)
PAJU, July 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The Paju city government in Gyeonggi Province has launched a pilot project to monitor the safety of its elderly citizens by analyzing their TV watching patterns through TV rating equipment, as part of efforts to respond to dementia and solitary death issues.
In collaboration with the Papyeong-myeon district office and TV ratings company ATAM, the project was started in November last year with 30 single-person elderly households residing within the district.
As part of the project, village officials call elderly residents if their TVs remain off in the morning or TV channels remain unchanged for more than two hours. If no one answers, officials visit the elderly residents to check if they are OK.
The service is also used for the early diagnosis of dementia. TV watching patterns are analyzed, and if the rate of watching reruns increases, a test for dementia is requested.
“This project, the first of its kind in the country, was launched based on the idea that most of the city’s elderly people spend leisure time watching TV,” the city government said.
Papyeong-myeon is a village undergoing severe population aging. Among its 4,075 residents, seniors over 65 years of age account for about one-third of the population.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
