Effects and determinants of household debt in Portugal

As the amount of debt has gradually increased, particularly in recent years, Portugal is currently one of the European countries exhibiting one of the highest levels of overall indebtedness, including in both sovereign and private sectors. Indeed, this condition is the outcome of increasing levels of debt assumed not only by the government, but also by companies and families, being the later mostly due to mortgage loans and due charges. This paper focuses on the study of borrowing by Portuguese households. The research has been made in respect to the notion of debt, the consequences of recent developments in debt, among other factors. In order to analyse the factors that are most associated with debt, a study was developed using two multiple regression models, one using a longer time series and another shorter, evaluating the effect of several variables, such as consumption, savings, unemployment, inflation and interest rates, in order to check whether they could be associated with a higher level of debt.

DEVELOPMENT OF A MECHATRONIC SYSTEM FOR BEDRIDDEN PEOPLE SUPPORT

This work is developed in the context of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) and has, as main purpose, the development of a mechatronic system that allows caring of bedridden patients with ongoing medical care terminal (MCT), by a single person. This system allows higher autonomy in domiciliary care, safety, comfort and hygiene of bedridden patients. It contributes to a large increase in their quality of life as well as the ease of monitoring by providers of continuous care, which, in many cases, may be the family itself. The product includes an embedded processing interface for acquiring physiological data to support online monitoring. The development of this project was focused on improving the quality of life, autonomy, participation in social life and reducing healthcare costs in the area AAL. The developed societies currently face severe demographic changes: the world is aging at an unprecedented rate. In 2000, about 420 million people, or about 7 percent of the world population were over 65 years old. In 2050, that number will be near 1500 million people, about 16 percent of the world population. This demographic trend will be accompanied by the increase of people with physical limitations. This will impose new challenges for traditional health systems, not only for Portugal but also for all European countries. There is an urgent need to find solutions to improve the lives of people in their preferred environment by increasing their autonomy, self-confidence and mobility. Therefore, in the case of household scenarios, the provision of effective health services is of fundamental importance to the welfare and economic development of each country. This ongoing project aims to develop a mechatronic system to meet the diverse needs, namely: improving life, health care, safety, comfort, and remote monitoring of bedridden person.