Usability assessment of a pervasive system to assist caregivers in dealing with repetitive behaviors of patients with dementia

The care for patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) imposes significant burden on care providers. Often the primary care giver is an elder with health issues of her own. Repetitive questioning is one of the behaviors that cause more stress on caregivers. We present the results of a usability study of an Ambient Augmented Memory System aimed at assisting patients with early AD and their care providers deal with this behavior. The system uses digital cue cards in a mobile phone and a digital memory board at home. An important concern in the design, and the focus of the evaluation study is not to create more stress on the care provider in operating the system, an important challenge considering that they often have no previous computer usage experience.

[1]  R. Woods,et al.  Cognitive training and cognitive rehabilitation for people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease: A review , 2004 .

[2]  K. Lapane,et al.  Dementia of the Alzheimer type. , 2008, Epidemiologic reviews.

[3]  J. Millán-Calenti,et al.  [Accesibility and usability of computer-based cognitive stimulation: Telecognitio]. , 2010, Revista espanola de geriatria y gerontologia.

[4]  M. Bourgeois,et al.  A comparison of training strategies to enhance use of external aids by persons with dementia. , 2003, Journal of communication disorders.

[5]  E. Salmon,et al.  Compensating strategies for impaired episodic memory and time orientation in a patient with Alzheimer's disease. , 2005, Acta neurologica Belgica.

[6]  L. Burgio,et al.  Modifying repetitive verbalizations of community-dwelling patients with AD. , 1997, The Gerontologist.

[7]  S. Salloway,et al.  Alzheimer disease: Time to improve its diagnosis and treatment , 2009, Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine.

[8]  Fabio Pianesi,et al.  An exploratory study of a touch-based gestural interface for elderly , 2010, NordiCHI.

[9]  P. Topo.  Technology Studies to Meet the Needs of People With Dementia and Their Caregivers , 2009 .

[10]  Z. Khachaturian,et al.  Prevent Alzheimer's disease by 2020: A national strategic goal , 2009, Alzheimer's & Dementia.

[11]  Jacob Slonim,et al.  Requirements gathering with alzheimer's patients and caregivers , 2005, Assets '05.

[12]  Julie Ferguson,et al.  Person-Centred Dementia Care: Making services better , 2007 .

[13]  Louise Nygård,et al.  The meaning of everyday technology as experienced by people with dementia who live alone , 2008 .

[14]  Anne Marie Piper,et al.  Exploring the accessibility and appeal of surface computing for older adult health care support , 2010, CHI.

[15]  Chris D. Nugent,et al.  A user driven approach to develop a cognitive prosthetic to address the unmet needs of people with mild dementia , 2009, Pervasive Mob. Comput..

[16]  Isabel González-Abraldes,et al.  Accesibilidad y usabilidad de las aplicaciones computarizadas de estimulación cognitiva: Telecognitio® , 2010 .