Backed by Peer-Reviewed Research
Nearly 9 in 10 adults over 65 want to age in their own home.
For your parents, independence isn’t a preference. But staying home requires maintaining the everyday abilities most people take for granted.
Source: AARP 2021 Home and Community Preferences Survey
The Threats
1 in 3
older adults never return to baseline function after a single hospital stay
Hospitalization
#1
cause of injury-related death (3x higher death risk) in adults over 65
Falls
6.5M
Americans living with Alzheimer’s, eroding capacity for self-care
Cognitive decline
66%
increased mortality risk in the first 3 months after spousal loss
Loss of a spouse
70%
of adults needing long-term care cite inability to manage daily tasks
Home upkeep failure
None of these have to end in a nursing home. But when frailty sets in, they almost always do.
Frail older adults are 5.6× more likely to be placed in a nursing home than non-frail peers. Even pre-frailty triples the risk.
Kojima, JAMDA, 2016 · pooled OR = 5.58, 95% CI 2.94–10.60
Frailty is not aging. It’s a clinical syndrome — a progressive loss of functional reserve, the body’s ability to absorb a setback and recover. Think of it as a battery: a full battery can survive a fall, a hospital stay, even the loss of a spouse. A depleted battery can’t survive any of them.
A fall becomes a nursing home admission. A hospital stay becomes the last time your parent walks unassisted. A spouse’s death removes the only person keeping the household running. Without enough functional reserve, every threat on this list ends the same way.
What Drives Frailty
Peer-reviewed research has identified the factors that accelerate frailty.
Each of these erodes your parent’s functional reserve — their ability to absorb life’s inevitable setbacks and stay home.
Each is something Auxillo is designed to detect early — through changes in your parents’ daily patterns.
Effect sizes from systematic reviews and meta-analyses (HR = Hazard Ratio, OR = Odds Ratio)
43% vs 12%
7-year mortality rate for frail vs. non-frail older adults. The difference between catching it early and not.
Fried et al., J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, 2001
The Evidence for Reversal
The most important finding: frailty is reversible.
When caught early, targeted interventions can rebuild functional reserve in a significant number of older adults.
39%
Fall risk reduction
Balance and strength training programs reduced the rate of falls by up to 39% in older adults.17
41–50%
Frailty reversal rate
Primary care interventions reversed frailty in up to half of pre-frail and frail older adults.13
59–69%
Risk reduction with daily exercise
Regular physical activity reduced the risk of developing frailty by up to 69%.12
The Survival Data
Every lost ability compounds into dramatically lower survival odds for your parents.
This 12-year study shows how functional decline — measured in Activities of Daily Living — predicts survival. People with no difficulty have ~48% survival at 12 years. Those with severe limitations approach 0%.
ADLs — Activities of Daily Living — are the clearest measure of your parent’s remaining functional reserve. Things like bathing, dressing, cooking, managing medications. Each one your parent loses signals that their ability to absorb the next setback has gotten smaller.
This is why early detection matters. By the time your parents can’t bathe or dress independently, the window for reversal has narrowed dramatically.
12-Year Survival Estimates by ADL Stage
Dunlop et al., Am J Public Health, 1997
Tying It Back
Auxillo monitors the patterns that predict decline before your parents even notice.
No cameras. No wearables to remember. Just ambient intelligence watching for the subtle shifts that research shows precede ADL decline — the earliest signs that your parent’s functional reserve is dropping.
Sleep
Fragmented sleep and increased nighttime waking are among the earliest markers of cognitive and physical decline.
Activity
Reduced movement and social withdrawal predict frailty onset months before clinical detection.
Meals
Skipped meals and nutritional decline are both one of the earliest indicators and accelerators of the frailty cycle.
Auxillo monitors the patterns that predict decline — so you can act before it’s too late.