Birmingham City Council

We have an ageing population. Birmingham alone is home to 147,000 people over the age of 65 (13% of the population) and this is predicted to increase to 203,000 people by 2035 – an increase of 38%.

Our commitment is to support a target group of people over the age of 65 to access prevention and early intervention services quickly, avoiding reactive crisis management that results in high cost, acute services and the additional costs incurred by the local authority in support these individual when they are discharged from hospital or other rehabilitation centres.

One area of prevention impacting particularly on older people and those in care is dehydration, as common consequences include confusion, falls, pressure ulcers and UTIs. Dehydration can deteriorate rapidly and lead to unnecessary invasive clinical interventions and long-term outcomes that can result in the loss of independence, dignity and death (Hydrate4Health 2015).

We would like to explore the use of  low cost, simple technology enabled devices to provide data on an individual’s hydration status that prompts them (or their carers) when hydration levels are low and understand the impact of these technologies to reduce incidences of hospitalisation and the associated costs of discharge into local authority care.