Review of the empirical studies on the effectiveness of Assistive Technology in people with dementia

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sum ◽  
R. Fleming
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris A.G.M. Geerts ◽  
Liselore J.A.E Snaphaan ◽  
Inge M.B. Bongers

BACKGROUND Despite the potential value of assistive technology to support people with dementia (PWD) in everyday activities, use of these technologies is still limited. To ensure that assistive technologies better address the specific needs and daily context of PWD and their informal caregivers, it is particularly important to involve them in all different phases of assistive technology development. The literature rarely describes the involvement of PWD throughout the development process of assistive technologies, which makes it difficult to further reflect on and improve active involvement of PWD. OBJECTIVE This two-part study aimed to gather insights on the user-centered design (UCD) applied in the development process of the alpha prototype of the serious game PLAYTIME by describing the methods and procedures of the UCD as well as evaluating the UCD from the perspective of all involved stakeholders. METHODS The first three phases of the user-driven Living Lab of Innovate Dementia 2.0 were applied to directly involve PWD and their informal caregivers through qualitative research methods, including focus groups and a context-field study, in the development of the alpha prototype of PLAYTIME from exploration to design to testing. After the testing phase, a total number of 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with PWD, their informal caregivers and the project members of PLAYTIME to evaluate the applied UCD from the perspective of all involved stakeholders. The interviews addressed five of the principles for successful UCD and the appropriateness of the different methods used in the focus groups and context-field study. RESULTS Results of the interviews focused, amongst others, on the level of involvement of PWD and their informal caregivers in the development process, the input provided by PWD and their informal caregivers, the value of early prototyping, continuous iterations of design solutions and in-context testing, the role of dementia care professionals in the multidisciplinary project team, and the appropriateness of open- and closed-ended questions for obtaining input from PWD and their informal caregivers. CONCLUSIONS The description and evaluation of the UCD applied in the development process of the alpha prototype of PLAYTIME resulted in several insights on the relevance of UCD for all involved stakeholders as well as how PWD can be involved in the subsequent phases of usable and meaningful assistive technology development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Panke-Kochinke

In the research process, researchers are repeatedly confronted with situations in which they have to make a moral decision about how they should deal with their research counterparts, but also with the ethical requirements of science and society. This leads to conflicts. In the analysis of qualitatively oriented empirical studies, central elements for solving these conflict situations are recorded against the background of a heuristic model of research morality. First didactically based considerations for a training concept are presented. In her research, the author herself has dealt with these questions for many years in her studies on people with dementia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Curnow ◽  
Robert Rush ◽  
Sylwia Gorska ◽  
Kirsty Forsyth

Abstract Background Assistive Technology for people with dementia living at home is not meeting their care needs. Reasons for this may be due to limited understanding of variation in multiple characteristics of people with dementia including their safety and wandering risks, and how these affect their assistive technology requirements. This study therefore aimed to explore the possibility of grouping people with dementia according to data describing multiple person characteristics. Then to investigate the relationships between these groupings and installed Assistive Technology interventions. Methods Partitioning Around Medoids cluster analysis was used to determine participant groupings based upon secondary data which described the person characteristics of 451 people with dementia with Assistive Technology needs. Relationships between installed Assistive Technology and participant groupings were then examined. Results Two robust clustering solutions were identified within the person characteristics data. Relationships between the clustering solutions and installed Assistive Technology data indicate the utility of this method for exploring the impact of multiple characteristics on Assistive technology installations. Living situation and caregiver support influence installation of assistive technology more strongly than level of risk or cognitive impairment. People with dementia living alone received different AT from those living with others. Conclusions Results suggest that caregiver support and the living situation of the person with dementia influence the type and frequency of installed Assistive Technology. Reasons for this include the needs of the caregiver themselves, the caregiver view of the participants’ needs, caregiver response to alerts, and the caregiver contribution to the assistive technology assessment and selection process. Selection processes should be refined to account for the needs and views of both caregivers and people with dementia. This will require additional assessor training, and the development of validated assessments for people with dementia who have additional impairments. Policies should support the development of services which provide a wider range of AT to facilitate interventions which are focused on the needs of the person with dementia.


2013 ◽  
pp. 1606-1625
Author(s):  
Clifton Phua ◽  
Patrice Claude Roy ◽  
Hamdi Aloulou ◽  
Jit Biswas ◽  
Andrei Tolstikov ◽  
...  

The work is motivated by the expanding demand and limited supply of long-term personal care for People with Dementia (PwD), and assistive technology as an alternative. Telecare allows PwD to live in the comfort of their homes for a longer time. It is challenging to have remote care in smart homes with ambient intelligence, using devices, networks, and activity and plan recognition. Our scope is limited to mostly related work on existing execution environments in smart homes, and activity and plan recognition algorithms which can be applied to PwD living in smart homes. PwD and caregiver needs are addressed in a more holistic healthcare approach, domain challenges include doctor validation and erroneous behaviour, and technical challenges include high maintenance and low accuracy. State-of-the-art devices, networks, activity and plan recognition for physical health are presented; ideas for developing mental training for mental health and social networking for social health are explored. There are two implications of this work: more needs to be done for assistive technology to improve PwD’s mental and social health, and assistive software is not highly accurate and persuasive yet. Our work applies not only to PwD, but also the elderly without dementia and people with intellectual disabilities.


Author(s):  
Sanjeev Kumar Gupta

This chapter focuses on the use of assistive technology in persons with Intellectual Disabilities (IDs). Persons with IDs have significant limitations, both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behaviors. The use of assistive technology is essential to help persons with IDs and make them independent in all spheres of life. Assistive technology devices and services can be used to teach, train, rehabilitate, and empower persons in a variety of daily activities viz. new learning, home living, employment, health and safety, communication, social activities, protection and leisure. Empirical studies suggest that assistive technology is effective in improving the quality of life of persons with IDs and make them less dependent on others. This chapter investigates the available research evidence on the use of assistive technology in IDs, discusses utilizations, impediments/barriers, implications and suggests recommendations for future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 937-953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Øksnebjerg ◽  
Janet Janbek ◽  
Bob Woods ◽  
Gunhild Waldemar

ABSTRACTBackground:Assistive technology is advocated as a key solution to the need for support among people living with dementia. There is growing awareness of the benefits of user involvement in the design and test of these technologies and the need to identifying applicable and effective methods for implementation. The aim of this review was to explore and synthesize research addressing assistive technology designed to be used by people with dementia for self-management. Further research aims were to explore if and how user involvement, dissemination, and adoption of assistive technology were addressed.Method:Electronic databases were searched using specified search terms. Key publications and grey literature sources were hand-searched. Materials published until year end 2018 were included. The results were summarized according to the research aims.Results:Eleven papers derived from eight studies were included. The studies presented data from prototype design and testing, and the review showed great variation in study scope, design, and methodology. User involvement varied from extensive involvement to no user involvement. Methods for adoption also varied widely and only targeted prototype testing. None of the studies addressed dissemination.Conclusion:The results of this review underline the need for well-designed high-quality research into all the aspects that are essential to deliver applicable, effective, and sustainable assistive technology to support self-management of people with dementia. There is a need for evidence-based methods to promote and qualify user involvement, dissemination, and adoption. The results also point to the need for standardized outcome measures and standards for conducting and reporting research to improve its quality and impact.


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