scholarly journals Towards adopting serious games for cognitive tests with Brazilian older people

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Leandro Agostini do Amaral ◽  
Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes ◽  
Marcos Hortes Nisihara Chagas ◽  
Paula Costa Castro ◽  
Thiago Jabur Bittar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Cognitive Evaluation ◽  
Validation Experiments

Serious games are a promising tool in different scenarios, such as education and health; however, there has been little research reported on their specialized use for older adults. We created a digital cognitive test – with the characteristics of a serious game – using Unified Design aiming to reproduce digitally the results of clinical cognitive evaluation in older people. The digital cognitive test was submitted to two validation experiments targeting an older public (n=40) with little experience in dealing with tablets or smartphones. The first experiment did not show significant correlation, but from it, we implemented initiatives to simplify the tests, which brought a positive result regarding convergence analysis in the second experiment. We concluded that it is possible to use digital games as cognitive tests adapted to the needs of older adults to achieve similar results as those of paper-based cognitive tests.

scholarly journals Digital Cognitive Tests with Brazilian elderly

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro Agostini Do Amaral ◽  
Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes ◽  
Thiago Jabur Bittar
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Test Format ◽  
Digital Form ◽  
Cognitive Assessments ◽  
Test Tool ◽  
Education And Health

Serious games are presented as a very promising mechanism in many settings, such as education and health, however its application with the elderly is little verified. In order to reproduce in digital form the results of the elderly cognitive assessments, made and validated on paper, in this study a digital cognitive test tool, with the characteristics of a serious game, was developed using the Unified Design process. As conclusion, it is suggested that it is possible to achieve results similar to those obtained by validated and paper-based tests, from a game, adapted to the needs of the elderly, in a digital cognitive test format.

scholarly journals Heuristics and Recommendations for the Design of Mobile Serious Games for Older Adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Mônica da Consolação Machado ◽  
Ronan Loschi Rodrigues Ferreira ◽  
Lucila Ishitani
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Older People ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Important Goal ◽  
Mobile Games ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
The Public

As people get older, their physical and cognitive functions decline. Meeting these needs is an important goal to be reached, to propose activities that may contribute to a better quality of life, including leisure and learning. As such, this paper aims to present a set of heuristics and recommendations for the design of mobile serious games for older adults. To elaborate these heuristics and recommendations, we conducted two studies with older people. In the first study, we invited people aged 60 or more to evaluate mobile games, intending to collect data that could help us to adapt the heuristics that were already published to the public of this research. In the period between the two studies, we developed a serious mobile game (Labuta​ Batuta​) that met the set of adapted heuristics. In the second study, we invited another group of older people, aged 45 or over, to qualitatively evaluate Labuta​ Batuta​, in order to develop a Grounded Theory about the desirable characteristics for the design of serious mobile games for older adults. Besides a Grounded Theory, the second study allowed the identification of nine requirements to be considered when designing the mechanics of mobile games for older adults.

scholarly journals EMPOWERMENT OF OLDER PEOPLE TO PARTICIPATE IN EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Irena Zemaitaityte
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Older People ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Education And Health

The article examines the empowerment of older adults to participate in educational activities in order to remain active members of the society. Empowerment is defined as the activation of the member to act on the basis of inner and outer resources. The growing number of older people in the society prompt to constantly review and adjust the resources of the society in the area of economy, education and health care to the new needs. Therefore, in order that older people would feel a fulfilling quality of life, it is necessary to promote them to be active, underpin social roles, provide them possibilities to engage in volunteering, educational, cultural activity and learn new things.

scholarly journals Electronic Cognitive Screen Technology for Screening Older Adults With Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Community Setting: Development and Validation Study

10.2196/17332 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. e17332
Author(s):  
Joyce Y C Chan ◽  
Adrian Wong ◽  
Brian Yiu ◽  
Hazel Mok ◽  
Patti Lam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Predictive Models ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Derivation Cohort ◽  
Cognitive Screen

Background A digital cognitive test can be a useful and quick tool for the screening of cognitive impairment. Previous studies have shown that the diagnostic performance of digital cognitive tests is comparable with that of conventional paper-and-pencil tests. However, the use of commercially available digital cognitive tests is not common in Hong Kong, which may be due to the high cost of the tests and the language barrier. Thus, we developed a brief and user-friendly digital cognitive test called the Electronic Cognitive Screen (EC-Screen) for the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia of older adults. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the EC-Screen for the detection of MCI and dementia in older adults. Methods The EC-Screen is a brief digital cognitive test that has been adapted from the Rapid Cognitive Screen test. The EC-Screen uses a cloud-based platform and runs on a tablet. Participants with MCI, dementia, and cognitively healthy controls were recruited from research clinics and the community. The outcomes were the performance of the EC-Screen in distinguishing participants with MCI and dementia from controls, and in distinguishing participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls. The cohort was randomly split into derivation and validation cohorts based on the participants’ disease group. In the derivation cohort, the regression-derived score of the EC-Screen was calculated using binomial logistic regression. Two predictive models were produced. The first model was used to distinguish participants with MCI and dementia from controls, and the second model was used to distinguish participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed and the areas under the curves (AUCs) were calculated. The performances of the two predictive models were tested using the validation cohorts. The relationship between the EC-Screen and paper-and-pencil Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Hong Kong version (HK-MoCA) was evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results A total of 126 controls, 54 participants with MCI, and 63 participants with dementia were included in the study. In differentiating participants with MCI and dementia from controls, the AUC of the EC-Screen in the derivation and validation cohorts was 0.87 and 0.84, respectively. The optimal sensitivity and specificity in the derivation cohorts were 0.81 and 0.80, respectively. In differentiating participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls, the AUC of the derivation and validation cohorts was 0.90 and 0.88, respectively. The optimal sensitivity and specificity in the derivation cohort were 0.83 and 0.83, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the EC-Screen and HK-MoCA (r=–0.67, P<.001). Conclusions The EC-Screen is suggested to be a promising tool for the detection of MCI and dementia. This test can be self-administered or assisted by a nonprofessional staff or family member. Therefore, the EC-Screen can be a useful tool for case finding in primary health care and community settings.

scholarly journals Voice Biomarkers as Possible Indicators of Cognitive Aging

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 709-710
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mahon ◽  
Margie Lachman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Cognitive Measure ◽  
The Voice

Abstract There is emerging evidence that measures of voice prosody are related to diagnoses of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. The goal of this study was to examine whether voice prosody measures (pitch, pulse, voice breaks, jitter, shimmer, and amplitude) are also related to individual differences in normal cognitive aging. Data are from the Midlife in the United States Wave 2 (M2) and Wave 3 (M3) for 2693 participants (ages 42-92 at M3) who completed the M2 and M3 Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT) and had M3 voice recordings. Voice variables were measured from cognitive interviews using three cognitive tests and averaged to create a composite for each voice variable. Voice prosody was related to age, sex, education, and health, which were included as covariates. Older adults, men, and those with more health conditions had higher jitter and shimmer. Older adults, women, and those with higher education and better health had more voice breaks. Hierarchical regression models, controlling for the covariates, examined the voice composites as predictors of each cognitive measure at M3 and change over 9 years from M2 to M3. As hypothesized, higher jitter predicted lower performance and greater decline on memory, category fluency, and attention. Contrary to predictions, a lower number of voice breaks predicted worse performance and greater declines on all cognitive tests. The results suggest that voice biomarkers are related to cognitive performance and decline, and they may offer a promising approach for identifying early signs of cognitive impairment or dementia.

Identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment by Using Human–Robot Interactions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Yu-Ling Chang ◽  
Di-Hua Luo ◽  
Tsung-Ren Huang ◽  
Joshua O.S. Goh ◽  
Su-Ling Yeh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Cognitive Tests

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is common in older adults, is a risk factor for dementia. Rapidly growing health care demand associated with global population aging has spurred the development of new digital tools for the assessment of cognitive performance in older adults. Objective: To overcome methodological drawbacks of previous studies (e.g., use of potentially imprecise screening tools that fail to include patients with MCI), this study investigated the feasibility of assessing multiple cognitive functions in older adults with and without MCI by using a social robot. Methods: This study included 33 older adults with or without MCI and 33 healthy young adults. We examined the utility of five robotic cognitive tests focused on language, episodic memory, prospective memory, and aspects of executive function to classify age-associated cognitive changes versus MCI. Standardized neuropsychological tests were collected to validate robotic test performance. Results: The assessment was well received by all participants. Robotic tests assessing delayed episodic memory, prospective memory, and aspects of executive function were optimal for differentiating between older adults with and without MCI, whereas the global cognitive test (i.e., Mini-Mental State Examination) failed to capture such subtle cognitive differences among older adults. Furthermore, robot-administered tests demonstrated sound ability to predict the results of standardized cognitive tests, even after adjustment for demographic variables and global cognitive status. Conclusion: Overall, our results suggest the human–robot interaction approach is feasible for MCI identification. Incorporating additional cognitive test measures might improve the stability and reliability of such robot-assisted MCI diagnoses.

scholarly journals Electronic Cognitive Screen Technology for Screening Older Adults With Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Community Setting: Development and Validation Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Y C Chan ◽  
Adrian Wong ◽  
Brian Yiu ◽  
Hazel Mok ◽  
Patti Lam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Predictive Models ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Cognitive Tests ◽  
Derivation Cohort ◽  
Cognitive Screen

BACKGROUND A digital cognitive test can be a useful and quick tool for the screening of cognitive impairment. Previous studies have shown that the diagnostic performance of digital cognitive tests is comparable with that of conventional paper-and-pencil tests. However, the use of commercially available digital cognitive tests is not common in Hong Kong, which may be due to the high cost of the tests and the language barrier. Thus, we developed a brief and user-friendly digital cognitive test called the Electronic Cognitive Screen (EC-Screen) for the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia of older adults. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the EC-Screen for the detection of MCI and dementia in older adults. METHODS The EC-Screen is a brief digital cognitive test that has been adapted from the Rapid Cognitive Screen test. The EC-Screen uses a cloud-based platform and runs on a tablet. Participants with MCI, dementia, and cognitively healthy controls were recruited from research clinics and the community. The outcomes were the performance of the EC-Screen in distinguishing participants with MCI and dementia from controls, and in distinguishing participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls. The cohort was randomly split into derivation and validation cohorts based on the participants’ disease group. In the derivation cohort, the regression-derived score of the EC-Screen was calculated using binomial logistic regression. Two predictive models were produced. The first model was used to distinguish participants with MCI and dementia from controls, and the second model was used to distinguish participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed and the areas under the curves (AUCs) were calculated. The performances of the two predictive models were tested using the validation cohorts. The relationship between the EC-Screen and paper-and-pencil Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Hong Kong version (HK-MoCA) was evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS A total of 126 controls, 54 participants with MCI, and 63 participants with dementia were included in the study. In differentiating participants with MCI and dementia from controls, the AUC of the EC-Screen in the derivation and validation cohorts was 0.87 and 0.84, respectively. The optimal sensitivity and specificity in the derivation cohorts were 0.81 and 0.80, respectively. In differentiating participants with dementia from those with MCI and controls, the AUC of the derivation and validation cohorts was 0.90 and 0.88, respectively. The optimal sensitivity and specificity in the derivation cohort were 0.83 and 0.83, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the EC-Screen and HK-MoCA (<i>r</i>=–0.67, <i>P</i>&lt;.001). CONCLUSIONS The EC-Screen is suggested to be a promising tool for the detection of MCI and dementia. This test can be self-administered or assisted by a nonprofessional staff or family member. Therefore, the EC-Screen can be a useful tool for case finding in primary health care and community settings.

scholarly journals INTERNET USE AND LONELINESS OF OLDER ADULTS OVER TIME: THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF SOCIAL CONTACT

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S194-S194
Author(s):  
Kexin Yu ◽  
Kexin Yu ◽  
Shinyi Wu ◽  
Iris Chi
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Total Effect ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Health And Retirement Study ◽  
Longitudinal Association ◽  
Retirement Study ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Internet is increasingly popular among older adults and have changed interpersonal interactions. However, it remains controversial whether older people are more or less lonely with internet use. This paper tests the longitudinal association of internet use and loneliness among older people. One pathway that explains the association, the mediation effect of social contact, was examined. Data from the 2006, 2010 and 2014 waves of Health and Retirement Study was used. Hierarchical liner modeling results showed internet use was related to decreased loneliness over 12-year period of time (b=-0.044, p&lt;.001). Internet use was associated with more social contact with family and friends overtime (b=0.261, p&lt;.001), social contact was related to less perceived loneliness longitudinally (b=0.097, p&lt;.001). The total effect of internet use on loneliness is -0.054 and the mediated effect is -0.025. The findings imply that online activities can be effective for reducing loneliness for older people through increased social contact.

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