title: Use and Adoption of an Assisted Cognition System to Support Therapies for People with Dementia.
abstract: The cognitive deficits in persons with dementia (PwD) can produce significant functional impairment from early stages. Although memory decline is most prominent, impairments in attention, orientation, language, reasoning, and executive functioning are also common. Dementia is also characterized by changes in personality and behavioral functioning that can be very challenging for caregivers and patients. This paper presents results on the use and adoption of an assisted cognition system to support occupational therapy to address psychological and behavioral symptoms of dementia. During 16 weeks, we conducted an in situ evaluation with two caregiver-PwD dyads to assess the adoption and effectiveness of the system to ameliorate challenging behaviors and reducing caregiver burden. Evaluation results indicate that intervention personalization and a touch-based interface encouraged the adoption of the system, helping reduce challenging behaviors in PwD and caregiver burden.
authors.affiliation: Industrial Engineering Department, Universidad de Sonora, 83200 Hermosillo, SON, Mexico.
authors.forename: René F
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5625-4040
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, UABC, 21100 Mexicali, BC, Mexico.
authors.forename: Marcela D
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6943-7812
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, CICESE, 22860 Ensenada, BC, Mexico.
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Favela
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016477:Artifacts; D001519:Behavior; D017028:Caregivers; D003071:Cognition; D003704:Dementia / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000379:methods*; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010551:Personality; D016730:Program Development; D012107:Research Design; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D018910:Video Games