Annual checkups are essential for seniors’ continued health as a lot can change in a year. However, you may worry that your parent will develop a serious health condition between annual well visits. Thankfully, many wearable devices can help track vital health statistics, including heart rate, activity levels, and sleep patterns. Some devices, such as Lively and CarePredict, are specifically designed to monitor seniors. With a little help, your parent may be able to get a better sense of their health needs and, if concerns arise, they can share their device’s data with their doctor.

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Each time you go to the doctor, they check for issues that you’d have a hard time spotting on your own. That’s what makes those regular visits so important, but what if there’s a problem that you don’t know how to detect in between doctor’s visits?

How long could you be walking around with high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat or some other health issue before you get back to the doctor for your next checkup?

If you could learn right away what was going on, you’d know when to see your doctor sooner and proactively take preventative measures to keep your health from getting any worse. Technology is starting to make that possible. Seniors can now consider a number of devices designed to help you monitor your health in between doctor’s visits. These products help you spot problems sooner and often also nudge you to be healthier in the meantime.

Here are a few to look into:

1. Apple Watch

Finally, we have the Apple Watch, a popular wearable options that is not made specifically for seniors, but can provide you some benefits. Apple watches track activity, blood pressure, heart rate and sleep. Like the other popular wearable options, it can nudge you to develop healthier habits while also tracking some of the basic health information that helps you realize it sooner if you’re facing health issues.

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2. BodyGuardian Heart

BodyGuardian Heart is a wearable that you stick directly onto your skin which tracks activity, heart rate, respiration and other vital signs while you wear it. Like most of the other products here, it connects to an app which allows the person wearing it, their doctor and caregivers to monitor vital signs and be quickly alerted when there’s a change that suggests potential health problems.

This is another product that seniors can’t simply buy on their own. It has to be prescribed by your doctor. The good news is that it’s covered by many health insurance policies. The involvement of your doctor in buying and using this one means they have access to a portal that provides them with all the data they need to know if or when they need to get in touch with you for a new visit, or to make updated recommendations for your health.

3. CarePredict

ADLs are a big part of senior care and CarePredict recognizes that. The health tracking system focuses on tracking ADLs of the senior wearing it throughout the day. How many times did they eat? Brush their teeth? Go to the bathroom? The idea behind this tracker is that noticing when something’s off with their ADLs can be a quick sign that something bigger is wrong.

In addition to tracking ADLs, the wearable and connected system track health factors that can point toward a developing health problem so caregivers know when to step in. It also offers GPS so caregivers can track where a senior is. Unfortunately, consumers can’t purchase CarePredict just yet, it’s only available to senior care companies like assisted living communities or in-home care providers.

4. Fitbit

Fitbit is one of the best-known brands for wearables. They have a number of products that offer the same kind of features you commonly see with popular wearables: activity tracking, heart rate tracking, details on the time you spent sleeping and your different sleep stages. They also provide you with the option to connect with friends through the app as an extra incentive to get moving (at least if you’re the competitive type). Some of their products are waterproof as well and you can choose to log information like your meals and how much water you drink if you want the app to give you a fuller picture of your health.

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5. Jawbone

While it’s not made for seniors specifically, the Jawbone wearable can come in handy for helping seniors track their activity, heart rate and sleeping. Most of their wearable products come in wristband form and in a variety of colors. If you want a tracker that encourages you to be more active and provides basic information about your sleep and heart health, this one will do the trick.

6. Lively Wearable

We’ve got a lot of wearables on our list, but Lively’s the main consumer wearable marketed specifically to seniors that were designed with your needs in mind. The wearable doesn’t track vital signs, but it is designed to count your daily steps and to recognize if you have a fall (as long as you wear it around your neck). Notably, it also has an emergency button that makes it easy for seniors to call for help any time they need it. It’s convenient to use since it’s waterproof and boasts a battery that lasts six months.

7. Reemo Health

Reemo’s a newer product that’s only available through third-party companies like assisted living and health care providers at this time. The features it offers are pretty impressive though. It tracks heart rate, location, sleep time and how active seniors are each day, making it easy for caregivers to check in on how a loved one is doing. The system is designed to quickly alert seniors and their caregivers to health declines in real time.

Reemo Health’s wearable also includes emergency button technology, to make it easy to contact authorities and loved ones as needed, and provides GPS technology to make it easier for loved ones to find a senior that gets lost.

When it comes to medical technology, you have access to helpful products the last generation of seniors could never have dreamed of. While some of these options can’t be accessed directly by interested seniors at this time, we’re likely to see more and better products for tracking senior health come onto the market in the years to come.

Consider purchasing a health tracker to stay more aware of your health needs day by day and keep your eyes open for new options that can provide even better outcomes in the months and years to come.

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Meet the Author

Angelike Gaunt

Angelike Gaunt is a content strategist at OurParents. She’s developed health content for consumers and medical professionals at major health care organizations, including Mayo Clinic, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the University of Kansas Health System. She’s passionate about developing accessible content to simplify complex health topics.

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