Inspiration
The NutriAGES program proved that higher protein intake can improve older adults’ health. However, measuring progress still requires long, clinician-led questionnaires that are too complex for home use. Many older adults lose motivation once support ends, and community teams lack easy ways to collect and share results. Our team wanted to fix this by creating a simple, low-tech kit that anyone can use at home. The goal was to track health benefits from nutrition programs without depending on medical staff, while keeping the process engaging, accessible, and meaningful for both participants and caregivers.
What it does
The kit helps older adults and caregivers track important health indicators — like grip strength, weight, appetite, and daily activity — in a way that’s easy and motivating. It uses open-source grip strength sensors, the EQ-5D EuroQol questionnaire for self-reported health, and engaging dashboards that display progress in clear visuals. The data can be shared with caregivers to support follow-up and celebrate milestones. By making results visible and understandable, the kit encourages long-term participation, builds confidence in self-care, and ensures communities can measure the impact of nutritional interventions over time.
How we built it
We engaged directly with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NutriAGES foundation to better understand the specific needs of older adults and the limitations of current assessment methods. This insight guided the development of hardware prototypes for grip strength measurement and a simplified EQ-5D EuroQol questionnaire for home use. We designed a straightforward data entry process where results are logged manually and instantly reflected in engaging dashboards for both participants and caregivers. All components were selected to be low-cost, durable, and easy to operate, ensuring usability even in low-tech or resource-limited environments.
Challenges we ran into
One major challenge was balancing accuracy with simplicity — especially for health metrics like grip strength. We also had to make sure the kit worked for people with reduced dexterity, low vision, or limited tech skills. Designing dashboards that were engaging for older adults but still informative for caregivers required many iterations. Another issue was ensuring the kit could work offline and still log data reliably. We also had to be mindful of cost, making sure every component could be sourced affordably while still meeting durability and ease-of-use requirements.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Being able to complete this under the time constraint, Exposure to new languages
What we learned
We learned that older adults are more motivated when they can see clear, visual proof of their progress. Simplicity in design does not mean sacrificing quality — a well-thought-out low-tech solution can still be research-ready and meet community needs. We also found that caregiver involvement improves consistency and adherence, especially when paired with small, positive feedback moments. Early engagement with end users helped us avoid unnecessary complexity and focus on features that truly matter to them, rather than building things that look advanced but aren’t practical in everyday life.
What's next for GripWise
In the future, we want to add NFC-based logging so participants can quickly check in and record their adherence to the program. This would make tracking even faster and reduce manual input errors. We also plan to integrate the kit with public health databases, allowing larger-scale analysis of community nutrition programs. Other improvements include adding cognitive function tracking, refining the dashboard’s accessibility features, and experimenting with gamified feedback to make participation more fun. These enhancements would help sustain motivation and provide richer, more actionable data for communities and researchers.
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