Multimodal Digital Monitoring and Integration Practices in Older Adults: Scoping Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Multimodal digital monitoring systems offer a promising avenue for the continuous, unobtrusive assessment of functional health and daily living in older adults, yet the extent to which existing studies leverage the core advantages of multimodality remains unclear. OBJECTIVE This scoping review aimed to systematically map the characteristics and implementation practices of multimodal digital monitoring systems used to assess daily living and functional health in older adults. METHODS A systematic search was conducted across four electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and IEEE Xplore; January 2020–November 2025), from which 30 studies were included and data were charted using a standardized extraction form. RESULTS The predominant deployment profile combined ambient and mobile/wearable sensors in passive sensing configurations within home settings. Functional and physiological monitoring were well-represented; however, nutritional monitoring was entirely absent and social engagement substantially underrepresented, indicating a systematic gap relative to the multidimensional health needs of older adults. Despite increasing hardware sophistication, analytical integration of multimodal data remained limited. CONCLUSIONS These findings show that although multimodal sensing has matured at the hardware level, the field is yet to fully realize its analytical and integrative potential in supporting the complex, person-centered needs of ageing populations.