Patent Publication Number: US-2023142776-A1

Title: Parent-child health management system, parent-child health analysis device, and parent-child health management method

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
     The present application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2020-106029 filed on Jun. 19, 2020, contents of which are incorporated into the present application by reference. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to a system for analyzing and managing health of a parent and a child. 
     BACKGROUND ART 
     For a purpose of assisting healthy development of children, a mother-child health examination is performed to examine lifestyles and health conditions of mothers during pregnancy and after childbirth and children from newborns to school children. 
     The following related art is described as background art in the present technical field. PTL 1 (JP-A-2011-108142) discloses a profiling device. In the profiling device, an output screen generation unit generates an output screen for displaying question information, and displays the output screen on a user terminal to present the output screen to a user. An information acquisition unit acquires answer information indicating an answer of the user to the question information and biological information of the user. An information storage unit stores the question information, the answer information, and the biological information corresponding to the answer information in association with each other. An answer determination unit determines whether to re-question based on the biological information of the user corresponding to the answer information. When the answer determination unit determines to re-question, the output screen generation unit generates an output screen for displaying re-question information, and displays the output screen on the user terminal to present the output screen to the user (with reference to the abstract). 
     CITATION LIST 
     Patent Literature 
     PTL 1: JP-A-2011-108142 
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     Technical Problem 
     The above-described mother-child health examination is an examination for a long period of time, and thus some mothers and children withdraw from the examination. Although questionnaires are effective in acquiring lifestyle information of mothers and children, questionnaires on dietary habits and the like are more troublesome as compared to advantages, due to complexity of answers, making it difficult to continuously acquire information. In particular, since predetermined questions are delivered at predetermined times and the number of questions becomes large, participants feel troublesome to answer them, so keeping participants from leaving and reducing the withdrawal rate is required. 
     Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a solution for continuously acquiring information from a parent and a child as an examination target and reducing a withdrawal rate of the examination. 
     Solution to Problem 
     A representative example of the invention disclosed in the present application is as follows. That is, a parent-child health management system comprising: a sensor terminal configured to sense at least one of a parent&#39;s state and a child&#39;s state; a user terminal to which data related to at least one of parent&#39;s life and child&#39;s life is input; and an analysis device configured to receive data collected by the sensor terminal and the user terminal. The analysis device is implemented by a computer including an arithmetic device, which executes predetermined arithmetic processing to implement the following functional units, and a storage device accessible by the arithmetic device. The analysis device includes: a reception unit configured to receive a sensor output from the sensor terminal and an answer to a questionnaire input to the user terminal; a questionnaire analysis unit configured to analyze at least one of parent&#39;s life information and child&#39;s life information based on the answer to the questionnaire and generate a life information analysis result; a sensor output analysis unit configured to generate, based on the sensor output, a sensing result including at least one of a parent-child relationship, a parent&#39;s health condition, and a child&#39;s health condition; a health estimation unit configured to compare the life information analysis result and the sensing result with a predetermined criterion to estimate at least one of a parent-child state, a parent&#39;s state, and a child&#39;s state; and an output unit configured to select a questionnaire and advice corresponding to the estimated state and output the selected questionnaire and advice to the user terminal. 
     Advantageous Effects of Invention 
     According to an aspect of the invention, it is possible to reduce a burden on a user who answers a questionnaire and reduce a withdrawal rate of an examination. Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above are clarified with the following description of embodiments. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a parent-child health analysis device according to a first embodiment. 
         FIG.  2    is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a questionnaire table according to the first embodiment. 
         FIG.  3    is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of an advice table according to the first embodiment. 
         FIG.  4    is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a parent-child health analysis device according to a second embodiment. 
         FIG.  5    is a diagram showing reading of a barcode of a product according to the second embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     Hereinafter, embodiments of a parent-child health management system of the invention is described with reference to the drawings. 
     First Embodiment 
       FIG.  1    is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a parent-child health analysis system according to a first embodiment. 
     The parent-child health management system according to the first embodiment includes a parent-child health analysis device  200 , a sensor terminal  10 , and a mobile terminal  20 . The parent-child health analysis device  200  is connected to the sensor terminal  10  that senses a home living space, and the mobile terminal  20  that is used by a family having a parent (at least one of a father and a mother) and a child as members. In the following description, members of the family are referred to as users when the members are not distinguished from each other. 
     The sensor terminal  10  is a sensor installed in a living space such as a home, detects a state of a user, and transmits a sensor output. The sensor terminal  10  is, for example, a camera that captures an image of a living space, a microphone (for example, an AI speaker or a smart speaker) that detects a sound of the living space, a wearable device that measures an activity amount or a heartbeat of the user wearing the sensor terminal  10 , or a sphygmomanometer worn by the user. The activity amount of the user can be calculated based on an acceleration measured by the wearable device. In addition, an activity amount of a user who is sleeping or an infant on a bed may be measured using a mat-shaped activity meter laid on a bed. As the sensor terminal  10 , a name tag type device capable of simultaneously acquiring an acceleration, a voice, and a face-to-face relationship between sensor terminals may be used. 
     Since the sensor terminal  10  acquires data of the user in the living space, from a viewpoint of privacy protection, the sensor terminal  10  may anonymize the acquired data, convert a camera image into a skeleton model, or acquire data of only the user who has agreed to use. 
     The mobile terminal  20  is a terminal, such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal, used by a user. The user inputs an answer to a questionnaire using the mobile terminal  20 . For example, a father or a mother inputs an answer (for example, selecting one or more from choices or texting answer to the questionnaire) to a questionnaire related to parenting. Instead of the mobile terminal  20 , a personal computer, a bidirectional television, or the like may be used. 
     The parent-child health analysis device  200  is connected to the sensor terminal  10  and the mobile terminal  20  via a network such as a wide area network (WAN) and a local area network (LAN). A connection method of the network may be either wired or wireless. The parent-child health analysis device  200  may be directly connected to the sensor terminal  10 , or may be connected to the sensor terminal  10  via a server  300  of a consumer device company (for example, an IT platform that sells smart speakers). 
     The parent and child have a medical examination at a medical institution such as obstetrics and gynecology to acquire a medical examination result. 
     The parent-child health analysis device  200  includes a reception unit  210 , an output unit  220 , a questionnaire analysis unit  230 , a sensor output analysis unit  240 , and a parent-child health estimation unit  250 , and analyzes parent-child health by executing a predetermined program. 
     The reception unit  210  receives, from the sensor terminal  10 , a sensor output that detects a state of the user at home, and outputs the sensor output to the sensor output analysis unit  240 . In addition, the reception unit  210  receives an answer to a questionnaire input by the user from the mobile terminal  20 , and outputs the answer to the questionnaire analysis unit  230 . That is, the answer to the questionnaire is input to the mobile terminal  20  in a form of an answer number to an option and a text answer to a question, and is transferred to the questionnaire analysis unit  230  via the reception unit  210 . 
     The questionnaire analysis unit  230  analyzes the received answer to the questionnaire and outputs a life information analysis result. The life information analysis result may include information, such as a meal content or a meal time of the parent and/or the child, which cannot be acquired by the sensor terminal  10 . In addition, the answer is analyzed by using a statistical method in terms of the number and a ratio of non-input items and a tendency of the answer, and other aspects. In addition, a time point at which the answer to the questionnaire is received is analyzed. The time point may be classified into one hour unit or a time period such as morning, noon, or night. 
     In addition, the questionnaire analysis unit  230  may compare the answer input by the user with a predetermined answer request criterion to determine validity of the answer. Specifically, it is preferable to determine whether the number of answers to the questionnaire or an answer rate reaches a statistically valid value and a reliable result is acquired. In addition, it may be estimated that all users whose answers to the questionnaire are medium (3 of options at 5 stages from 1 to 5) do not accurately answer the questionnaire, and the result of the questionnaire may be excluded. In addition, the answer input by the user may be compared with the answer tendency. Specifically, abnormality of the questionnaire answer may be detected based on whether there is a discrepancy with the previous answer related to a similar question, whether there is a discrepancy in the answer with another user who has answered the same questionnaire, or the like. 
     The sensor output analysis unit  240  analyzes the sensor output, which is input from the sensor terminal  10  to the reception unit  210 , and outputs a sensing result. The sensing result includes at least one of a parent-child relationship, a parent&#39;s health condition, and a child&#39;s health condition. For example, a parent and a child are recognized from a camera image as the sensor output, and a distance between the parent and the child is calculated. In addition, a length of time the child cries is measured by a voice acquired by a microphone. In addition, a parent&#39;s state and a child&#39;s state (during action, during sleep, or the like) are estimated based on activity amounts of the parent and the child measured by the wearable device. In addition, based on heart rates of the parent and the child measured by the wearable device, a time (a time point, a time period, or the like) when the parent and the child are relaxed and a time (a time point, a time period, or the like) when the parent and the child are tensed are calculated. 
     The parent-child health estimation unit  250  comprehensively analyzes the answer to the questionnaire and the sensor output, and estimates a parent-child health condition and the parent-child relationship. The health condition and the relationship each have a plurality of indices, and a numerical value of each index is calculated. The numerical value of each index may be a binary value, or may be determined by any decimal number from 0 to 1. The parent-child health estimation unit  250  determines whether the health condition and the relationship correspond to a label by comparing the calculated numerical value of each index with a predetermined threshold. The label is a state corresponding to at least one of the parent&#39;s health condition, the child&#39;s health condition, and the parent-child relationship, and is, for example, postpartum depression, allergy, asthma, underweight, or developmental retardation. Specifically, regarding a label of postpartum depression, in a case where it is determined that a distance between the parent and the child is longer than a predetermined distance and a duration time when the parent and the child are separated is longer than a predetermined time, a degree of closeness between the parent and the child is low (for example, a time when the parent and the child are in close contact with each other is shorter than a predetermined threshold), and the mother does not take good care of the child, it can be estimated that there is a possibility of neglect or postpartum depression. In addition, presence or absence of allergy in the child may be estimated based on a questionnaire answer related to food. In addition, underweight of the child may be estimated based on a questionnaire answer related to a medical examination result (height, weight). Furthermore, a degree of development may be estimated based on an activity amount of the child and a situation of utterance. 
     The output unit  220  includes a questionnaire selection unit  221 , a questionnaire table  222 , an advice generation unit  223 , and an advice table  224 . 
     The questionnaire selection unit  221  determines a questionnaire to be transmitted to the user based on the health condition and the relationship estimated by the parent-child health estimation unit  250  with reference to the questionnaire table  222  shown in  FIG.  2   . The questionnaire transmitted to the user includes questions related to medical examination results necessary for estimating the parent-child health condition, a state of daily life, meal contents of the parent and the child, or the like. In the questionnaire table  222 , conditions including the estimated health condition and the relationship and the questionnaire transmitted to the user are recorded in association with each other. Among items of the questionnaire table  222 , the label indicates the parent-child state determined based on the estimated health condition and relationship. As described above, the label includes postpartum depression, allergy, asthma, underweight, developmental retardation, or the like. The parent-child health estimation unit  250  determines whether the parent-child state corresponds to the label as an estimation result. The questionnaire selection unit  221  may determine whether the parent-child state corresponds to the label based on the estimation result of the parent-child health estimation unit  250 . 
     In the questionnaire table  222 , a questionnaire content is determined according to the label, and includes, for example, “when did you start eating food A?”, “do you enjoy living with your child?”, or the like. A priority is an index used to narrow down the questionnaire to be presented or determine an order of presenting the questionnaire when a plurality of questionnaires are transmitted to the user. For example, when a situation needs to be dealt with early or when it is a beginning of an event that is likely to become serious, a high priority is set to the questionnaire to be transmitted to the user. The priority may be set for each label. A destination is the destination to transmit in order to acquire a valid answer in the questionnaire. For example, the questionnaire is normally transmitted to a mother, but when postpartum depression is estimated, there is a possibility that a valid answer cannot be acquired even if the questionnaire is transmitted to the mother. Therefore, the questionnaire may be transmitted to the father to acquire a valid answer. In addition, without using the questionnaire table  222 , the questionnaire may be determined by multiple regression analysis using the estimated health condition and relationship as explanatory variables, or the questionnaire may be selected using a neural network by artificial intelligence. 
     The advice generation unit  223  determines advice to be transmitted to the user based on the health condition and the relationship estimated by the parent-child health estimation unit  250  with reference to the advice table  224  shown in  FIG.  3   . The advice generation unit  223  may determine advice related to the questionnaire selected by the questionnaire selection unit  221 . The advice transmitted to the user includes life advice for improving the health of the parent and the child, advice related to food recommended to be ingested based on the parent-child health condition, or the like. In the advice table  224 , conditions including the estimated health condition and relationship and the advice transmitted to the user are recorded in association with each other. In addition, without using the advice table  224 , the advice may be determined by multiple regression analysis using the estimated health condition and relationship as explanatory variables, or the advice may be selected using a neural network by artificial intelligence. Contents of the advice table  224  may be added or corrected by a system administrator. 
     The parent-child health estimation unit  250  may not be provided. In this case, the questionnaire selection unit  221  determines a questionnaire to be transmitted to the user based on the analysis results of the questionnaire analysis unit  230  and the sensor output analysis unit  240 . For example, the questionnaire may be determined by multiple regression analysis using the estimated health condition and relationship as explanatory variables, or the questionnaire may be selected using a neural network by artificial intelligence. In addition, the advice generation unit  223  determines advice to be transmitted to the user based on the analysis results of the questionnaire analysis unit  230  and the sensor output analysis unit  240 . For example, the advice may be determined by multiple regression analysis using the estimated health condition and relationship as explanatory variables, or the advice may be selected using a neural network by artificial intelligence. 
     The parent-child health analysis device  200  is implemented by a computer including a processor (CPU), a memory, an auxiliary storage device, and a communication interface, which are not shown. The parent-child health analysis device  200  may include an input and output interface for an operator to input and output data. 
     The processor is an arithmetic device that executes a program stored in the memory. By executing various programs by the processor, functions of the units (for example, the reception unit  210 , the output unit  220 , the questionnaire analysis unit  230 , the sensor output analysis unit  240 , the parent-child health estimation unit  250 , or the like) of the parent-child health analysis device  200  are implemented. A part of the processing executed by the processor executing the program may be executed by another arithmetic device (for example, hardware such as an ASIC or an FPGA). 
     The memory includes a ROM, which is a non-volatile storage element, and a RAM, which is a volatile storage element. The ROM stores an invariable program (for example, a BIOS) or the like. The RAM is a high-speed and volatile storage element such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and temporarily stores a program to be executed by the processor and data to be used when the program is executed. 
     The auxiliary storage device is a large-capacity, non-volatile storage device such as a magnetic storage device (for example, an HDD) and a flash memory (for example, an SSD). In addition, the auxiliary storage device stores data (for example, the questionnaire table  222 , the advice table  224 , or the like) used when the processor executes the program, and the program executed by the processor. That is, the program is read from the auxiliary storage device, loaded into the memory, and executed by the processor, thereby realizing each function of the parent-child health analysis device  200 . 
     The communication interface is a network interface device that controls communication with other devices according to a predetermined protocol. 
     The input and output interface is an interface to which an input device such as a keyboard and/or a mouse is connected and which receives an input from an operator, but the input and output interface may correspond to a voice input or the like. The output interface is an interface to which an output device such as a display device or a printer (not shown) is connected and which outputs an execution result of the program in a format that can be visually recognized by the operator. A terminal connected to the parent-child health analysis device  200  via a network may provide the input device and the output device. In this case, the parent-child health analysis device  200  may have a function of a web server, and the terminal may access the parent-child health analysis device  200  using a predetermined protocol (for example, http). 
     The program executed by the processor of the parent-child health analysis device  200  is provided in the parent-child health analysis device  200  via a removable medium (a CD-ROM, a flash memory, or the like) or a network, and is stored in a non-volatile auxiliary storage device which is a non-transitory storage medium. Therefore, the parent-child health analysis device  200  may have an interface for reading data from the removable medium. 
     The parent-child health analysis device  200  may be a computer system implemented by one physical computer or by a plurality of logical or physical computers, or may be operated on a virtual computer constructed on a plurality of physical computer resources. 
     As described above, according to the first embodiment of the invention, the appropriate questionnaire and advice are selected and delivered based on the result of sensing the parent and the child and the health information and relationship of the parent and the child estimated from the questionnaire answer or the like. Therefore, only the questionnaire and the advice suitable for the parent and the child can be delivered to the mobile terminal  20 , a burden on the user who answers the questionnaire can be reduced, and a withdrawal rate in the mother-child health examination can be reduced. 
     In addition, since the parent-child health estimation unit  250  comprehensively analyzes the answer to the questionnaire and the sensor output and determines the label (postpartum depression, allergy, asthma, underweight, developmental retardation, or the like) corresponding to the parent-child health condition and the parent-child relationship, it is possible to detect a sign of a state to be careful without being diagnosed in the medical institution. In addition, by using the label, it is possible to reliably detect a specific state to be careful. 
     Second Embodiment 
     Next, a second embodiment of the invention will be described. In the parent-child health analysis device  200  according to the second embodiment, a parent-child master assigning unit  225  and a delivery timing control unit  226  are added to the above-described first embodiment. In the second embodiment, functions and configurations the same as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. 
       FIG.  4    is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of the parent-child health analysis device according to the second embodiment. 
     A parent-child health management system according to the second embodiment includes the parent-child health analysis device  200 , the sensor terminal  10 , and the mobile terminal  20 . The parent-child health analysis device  200  is connected to the sensor terminal  10  and the mobile terminal  20  via a network. The parent-child health analysis device  200  includes the reception unit  210 , the output unit  220 , the questionnaire analysis unit  230 , the sensor output analysis unit  240 , and the parent-child health estimation unit  250 . The output unit  220  includes the questionnaire selection unit  221 , the questionnaire table  222 , the advice generation unit  223 , the advice table  224 , the parent-child master assigning unit  225 , and the delivery timing control unit  226 . 
     The delivery timing control unit  226  controls a timing of delivering a questionnaire selected by the questionnaire selection unit  221  to the mobile terminal  20 . In the method in the related art, since the questionnaire is delivered at a timing determined by a management side, when the delivery timing overlaps with a busy timing in childcare or the like, browsing or answering of the questionnaire becomes troublesome, an answer to the questionnaire becomes postponed, a possibility of withdrawing from the mother-child health examination becomes high, and continuation of the examination becomes difficult. Therefore, the delivery timing control unit  226  estimates a state of a user based on a sensor output from the sensor terminal  10 , and controls the delivery timing so as to deliver the questionnaire in a time period in which the user have relatively enough time. 
     For example, the delivery timing control unit  226  may statistically process a daily activity amount of the user on a time axis, select a time period in which the activity amount is small while the user is awake, and deliver the questionnaire. In addition, a distance between a parent and a child may be statistically processed on the time axis, and the questionnaire may be delivered by selecting a time period in which a degree of closeness between the parent and the child is low. In addition, the questionnaire may be delivered at a time (for example, two hours before and after) close to a time when the questionnaire was answered in the past. In addition, the questionnaire may be delivered during a time when the sensed real-time activity amount is small while the user is awake. In addition, the questionnaire may be delivered in a time when a distance between the parent and the child is long in real time and the degree of closeness between the parent and the child is low. In addition, the questionnaire may be delivered at a timing when the child is not crying. Furthermore, a combination of these plurality of references may be used to deliver questionnaires, for example, in a time period of low activity amount in the past time and low parent-child relationship in real time. 
     Accordingly, by the delivery timing control unit  226  controlling the delivery timing of the questionnaire, it is possible to deliver the questionnaire at a time with reference to the user, to reduce a burden on the user, and to prevent withdrawal from the mother-child health examination. 
     The parent-child master assigning unit  225  gives a prize (award) to a family who meets a criterion for responding to the questionnaire. The criterion for giving an award is, for example, a case where inappropriate answers (the same answers to all items or contradictory answers) are few, the user answers seriously, the user continues to answer for a long time (for example, 5 years or longer), or the like. When an award is given, for example, top performers or ranking may be displayed in a community in which mother-child health examination subjects participate, a coupon for a product or a service may be given, or a service dedicated to the person may be provided. The output unit  220  may provide a third party company with information of the given award in order for the user to receive a superiority service or a dedicated service. 
     Accordingly, the parent-child master assigning unit  225  gives an award to the user, such that it is possible to give game performance and a profit of the user by ranking up to the answer to the questionnaire, and to increase motivation to the questionnaire answer by social contribution. 
     In addition, the output unit  220  according to the second embodiment may provide, in addition to the information of the award, information (so-called big data) acquired by a questionnaire or sensing to a third party company. 
     In addition, in the second embodiment, a questionnaire delivered by a consumer company (for example, food manufacturing and selling companies such as a dairy product manufacturing company and a confectionery manufacturing company) supporting the mother-child health examination may be processed by the parent-child health analysis device  200  according to the present embodiment. For example, as shown in  FIG.  5   , a link (for example, a two-dimensional barcode) for answering a questionnaire is displayed on a package of a product sold by a consumer food company. The user who purchased the product reads the link using the mobile terminal  20  and answers the questionnaire on an accessed answer page. Then, the questionnaire analysis unit  230  of the parent-child health analysis device  200  processes the answer. As described above, the consumer food company can guide the user to a unique questionnaire via a product, and can collect user evaluation for the product of the consumer food company. 
     The invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and includes various modifications and equivalent configurations within the scope of the appended claims. For example, the embodiments described above has been described in detail for easy understanding of the invention, and the invention is not necessarily limited to those having all the configurations described above. In addition, a part of a configuration of a certain embodiment may be replaced with a configuration of another embodiment. In addition, the configuration of another embodiment may be added to the configuration of the certain embodiment. In addition, a part of the configuration of each embodiment may be added to, deleted from, and replaced with another configuration. 
     In addition, parts or all of the configurations, functions, processing units, processing methods described above or the like may be implemented by hardware, for example by designing with an integrated circuit, or may be implemented by software, with a processor to interpret and execute a program that implements each function. 
     Information such as a program, a table, a file, or the like that implements each function can be stored in a storage device such as a memory, a hard disk, and a solid state drive (SSD), or a recording medium such as an IC card, an SD card, and a DVD. 
     In addition, control lines and information lines indicate what is considered necessary for description, and not all the control lines and the information lines are necessarily shown in a product. In practice, it may be considered that almost all the configurations are connected with each other.