Human Factors and Requirements of People with Cognitive Impairment, Their Caregivers, and Healthcare Professionals for mHealth Apps Including Reminders, Games, and Geolocation Tracking: A Survey-Questionnaire Study

Ioulietta Lazarou; Thanos G Stavropoulos; Lampros Mpaltadoros; Spiros Nikolopoulos; George Koumanakos; Magda Tsolaki; Ioannis Yiannis Kompatsiaris

doi:10.3233/ADR-201001

Human Factors and Requirements of People with Cognitive Impairment, Their Caregivers, and Healthcare Professionals for mHealth Apps Including Reminders, Games, and Geolocation Tracking: A Survey-Questionnaire Study

J Alzheimers Dis Rep. 2021 Jun 11;5(1):497-513. doi: 10.3233/ADR-201001. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Ioulietta Lazarou^{1

2}, Thanos G Stavropoulos¹, Lampros Mpaltadoros¹, Spiros Nikolopoulos¹, George Koumanakos³, Magda Tsolaki^{1

4

2}, Ioannis Yiannis Kompatsiaris¹

Affiliations

¹ Information Technologies Institute, Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH-ITI), Thessaloniki, Greece.
² Medical School, Neuroscience Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Thessaloniki, Greece.
³ Frontida Zois, Non-profit patient organization, Patra, Greece.
⁴ Greek Association of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (GAADRD-Alzheimer Hellas), Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

Background: Mobile Health (mHealth) apps can delay the cognitive decline of people with dementia (PwD), by providing both objective assessment and cognitive enhancement.

Objective: This patient involvement survey aims to explore human factors, needs and requirements of PwD, their caregivers, and Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) with respect to supportive and interactive mHealth apps, such as brain games, medication reminders, and geolocation trackers through a constructive questionnaire.

Methods: Following the principles of user-centered design to involve end-users in design we constructed a questionnaire, containing both open-ended and closed-ended questions as well as multiple choice and Likert scale, in order to investigate the specific requirements and preferences for mHealth apps. We recruited 48 participants including people with cognitive impairment (n = 15), caregivers (n = 16), and HCPs (n = 17) and administered the questionnaire.

Results: All participants are likely to use mHealth apps, with the primary desired features being the improvement of memory and cognition, assistance on medication treatment, and perceived ease to use. HCPs, caregivers, and PwD consider brain games as an important technology-based, non-pharmaceutical intervention. Both caregivers and patients are willing to use a medication reminder app frequently. Finally, caregivers are worried about the patient wandering. Therefore, global positioning system tracking would be particularly important to them. On the other hand, patients are concerned about their privacy, but are still willing to use a geolocation app for cases of emergency.

Conclusion: This research contributes to mHealth app design and potential adoption. All three groups agree that mHealth services could facilitate care and ameliorate behavioral and cognitive disturbances of patients.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; apps; eHealth; information technologies; mHealth; mild cognitive impairment; remote monitoring; serious games; telemedicine.