Leisure Technology for the Elderly: A Survey, User Acceptance Testing and Conceptual Design

The Alzheimer’s disease damages neuronal and synaptic system due to the high level of amyloid beta in the brain. It is the common cause of dementia which is more common to afflict the elderly where they will gradually loss their memory and communication skills as well as deterioration of thinking and reasoning ability. Hence, it is crucial for elderly people to monitor their cognitive performance consistently and continuously to detect the Alzheimer’s symptoms, such as dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment. There are many technologies that have been established in healthcare for its detection; however, such technologies, mostly medical treatments could not be self-catered by elderly on daily basis and in fact the use of this technology incurs cost each time. Therefore, this study looks at an alternative technology called leisure technology that allows access to the elderly every day at home in an enjoyable and relaxing manner. The aim of this study is to study applications of leisure activities that could stimulate brain cognitive function to be turned to a leisure technology application. Prior to proposing the conceptual design of this application, a user acceptance study of leisure technology among elderly people has been conducted. This study involves interviews and survey through distribution of questionnaires. The survey results shows that 90% of the participants stated that there was an improvement in cognitive abilities after using leisure technology and 98.4% of the participants stated that they could adapt to leisure technology. On the other hand, the outcomes from the interview show that they agreed that different types of leisure technology provide heterogeneous benefits, which can improve their cognitive abilities. Finally, this study proposes a conceptual design for leisure technology application that elderly people can adapt to.