Was planning to give to her solely for health tracking options. She’s not too great with technology and eyesight ain’t the greatest to use text typing on watch to respond to people. Also doesn’t quite workout much so don’t really know if step tracking is much useful even. What the watch would do primarily would be sleep tracking and heart rate monitoring. A friend of mine suggested to get a yearly heart checkup (ECG, tmt, etc) instead of investing in the watch since it’s anyways not a medical grade thing and I am skeptical now about how to go about it. Anyone with suggestions? Btw planning a 41mm Series 8 in case if that’s important.
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My mom used a fit bit for years, then my dad got her an Apple Watch earlier this year and she LOVES it. She’s 66, doesn’t go anywhere without it
The Apple Watch is still great just for the safety features alone, even if she never touched it besides putting it on and teaching her how to call 911.
Fall detection
Crash detection
Heart rate detection/Afib detection
EKG
Blood Oxygen level reader
Emergency SOS
Compass backtrack
Medical ID
Is she open to trying and learning to use new tech? If she’s not, there’s a good chance this will sit in the box, get returned, or cause frustration. Source: seen it happen 3 times to people close to me.
She is open to new things but the screen size and lack of activity in general is what bothers me. She got her first iPhone 2 years back so I’d say she can learn things if they’re simple enough. She teaches kids so I believe learning is always important to her:)
Yes. Got one for my 85 year old mil after a fall. Turns out all her friends had them afterall and it was an “in” thing to have at chair yoga.
Fall detection is always great. For the elderly. I got it for all 4 of my grandparents especially the 2 approaching 90s and it’s a peace of mind.
Sometimes they hide the injuries and what not and makes things worse.
Had to see my grandpa limping and won’t tell us why. And we check the security footage to see him fall at the door. Wish we knew sooner.
I’m not sure what’s the best choice for you but I have an anecdote for you.
I got an Apple Watch a few years back and had my dad try it out. It detected a-fib right away which began a few years process of sorting that out. He’s not good at taking care of himself nor well aware of his body so it could have ended up being much worse by the time he figured it out otherwise.
That’s why I thought to get a yearly heart checkup done. Would detect more things than what a watch might.
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Get cellular if possible, 911 works without a cellular plan and without iPhone nearby.
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Typing isn’t necessary, scribble and voice work great.
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You can set a reminder to move each hour, if you’ve been sitting get up and stretch or at least wiggle your toes and squeeze your calves for blood flow.
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Apple has short YouTube videos with easy tutorials, plus tips are on the AW.
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She can set a small movement goal. While not doing any work out you can still see that you at least moved your minimum in a day or find you really sat on your butt and will make sure to move a bit more tomorrow.
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It has a strobe light so if it’s dark and you need to be seen/helped you are visible.
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Nightlight
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Medication feature is a huge plus for tracking and reminding.
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Hey, thinking about it also. Is the SPO2 reading accurate? Me Folks needed it . I see them using the fingertip SPO2 reading thingy whenever they feel tired after some time. Thanks
My parents have been using Apple Watch since they were 68 and now they are 72 and absolutely enjoys it. They’ve been working out daily thanks to the watch as well
If it helps with the ECG and the alerts, yeah why not. Just make sure that you mother uses it!
Apple Watches are fantastic assistive tech. youll need to help set it up and also make sure it’s regularly updated - if the opine auto updates and the watch doesn’t, for instance, they stop communicating. Probably turn off sounds and have it vibrate instead. Otherwise they’re super easy.
Things that might be particularly useful for a 60yo teacher whose not very into tech:
- countdowns - whisper ”5 min countdown” to it while holding button in when asking students to do something or to remind yourself to check the stove while cooking. Extremely useful and very discreet as only you feel the alert.
- calendar and reminders can be super useful. For my kids I put their school schedules (each lesson) on the watch and set a watch face that shows it and it helps them get to the right place at the right time.
- fun watch faces that you can change for different days/events.
- feel phone ringing even when phone is elsewhere.- text msg pop up. might need to set focus and VIPs so not disturbjng
- security of fall detection etc
Yes absolutely. At the very worst you will have to set up some stuff, but then your parent will have amazing medical & communication device on her all the time.
Good idea… setup is not a problem I live close by but I’m an android guy so don’t know all the details that are there about the watch. Someone suggested to get one for myself as well but that would be too much for me rn
It needs iPhone to work to begin with. So if you aren’t in Apple ecosystem already, you can’t really buy just the watch.
No she has iPhone but I don’t… that’s what I meant
100% I gave it to my dad who uses it 24x7 and shares his health with me. I live across the world but I always know his heart rate, respiratory rate, O2 saturations, any fall information. I know how much he has walked. If he is sleeping well. Basically if anything happens to him I will probably know before the person in the next room does. He also shares his location with me so I know where he is all the time. Basically it’s excellent for that one impending day that every one of us dreads. I have the same with my wife.
Yep. I got one for my mum who is a similar age and also not totally tech savy.
This might boost her activity levels… you never know she might get addicted to closing the rings!…