The interdisciplinary team of the R&D&I Chair for the prevention of Dependency together with the team of the Innovation Department of Macrosad have carried out a total of 365 interviews with people over 55 years of age from the Home Help Service and centers for the elderly managed by Macrosad.
The presentation ceremony of the scale has counted with the participation of Teodomiro López, rector of the University of Málaga, Andrés Rodríguez, president of Macrosad corporate, Francisco Manuel Cantos, councilman of Social Rights, Diversity, Equality and Accessibility of the Town hall of Málaga, María Dolores Vergara, deputy of Equality in Diputación de Málaga and Ruth Sarabia, territorial delegate of Social Inclusion, Youth, Families and Equality of the Junta de Andalucía.
Malaga, January 29, 2025. The R&D&I Chair for Dependency Prevention at the University of Malaga today presented the first dependency prevention scale, a questionnaire based on artificial intelligence, designed to identify the potential risk of suffering from dependency in the future. This pioneering tool will mark a before and after in the care sector by incorporating preventive elements that will reconfigure the approach to long-term care, promoting a more comprehensive model based on scientific evidence.
The interdisciplinary team of the R&D&I Chair for the Prevention of Dependency together with the team from Macrosad’s Innovation Department, who started the joint research in 2022, have carried out a total of 365 interviews, in person and by telephone, with people over 55 years of age of both sexes belonging mainly to residences, day centers and users of Macrosad’s Home Help Service, and located in the provinces of Malaga, Jaen and Seville.
The questionnaire consists of approximately 26 questions that evaluate key indicators such as the level of participation in innovative activities, the state of health or the attention they pay to their personal autonomy, among other variables that also facilitate the early identification of risk factors, as well as the implementation of personalized preventive interventions to minimize the progression towards states of greater vulnerability.
This tool will be very useful for technical professionals in both the public and private sectors, who work daily with people in a situation of dependency, allowing them to implement preventive actions.
Presentation of the scale
The presentation of the scale was attended by Teodomiro López, rector of the University of Malaga, Andrés Rodríguez, president of Macrosad corporate, Francisco Manuel Cantos, councilor for Social Rights, Diversity, Equality and Accessibility of the City Council of Malaga, María Dolores Vergara, deputy for Equality in the Diputación de Málaga and Ruth Sarabia, territorial delegate for Social Inclusion, Youth, Families and Equality of the Junta de Andalucía.
Then, Luis Miguel Rondón and Joaquín Ballesteros, director and member of the committee of the Chair R+D+i for the prevention of dependence, respectively, were in charge of the technical presentation of the scale. Enrique Márquez, vice-rector for Transfer, Business and Digital Transformation of the University of Malaga, was in charge of the closing ceremony.
The R&D&I Chair for the prevention of dependency was born in 2022 thanks to the agreement signed with the University of Malaga and is part of the Saberlia knowledge division of Macrosad corporate, specialized in research and knowledge transfer in the field of social innovation, which includes such outstanding projects as the Ageing Lab Foundation with research staff from the University of Jaen, the Macrosad Chair of Intergenerational Studies at the University of Granada and the Macrosad Chair of Green Social Work at the Pablo de Olavide University, among others.
