Evaluation of a novel Serious Game based assessment tool for patients with Alzheimer's disease

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 5; p. e0175999
• Main Authors: Vallejo, Vanessa, Wyss, Patric, Rampa, Luca, Mitache, Andrei V, Müri, René M, Mosimann, Urs P, Nef, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 04.05.2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Acuity; Adults; Age; Aging; Aging (natural); Alzheimer Disease - physiopathology; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Alzheimer's disease; Arches; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomedical engineering; Biomedical materials; Brain; Brain damage; Brain injury; Brain research; Case-Control Studies; Classification; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Computer & video games; Computer and Information Sciences; Computer applications; Computers; Data processing; Dementia; Dementia disorders; Diagnosis; Disease; Disorientation; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Educational software; Engineering; Evaluation; Eye; Eye movements; Frontal lobe; Games; Guidelines; Hospitals; Human motion; Humans; Interfaces; Intermetallic compounds; International conferences; Intervention; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental disorders; Motion detection; Motivation; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurology; Nickel base alloys; Older people; Pain; Population; Psychiatry; Psychomotor performance; Psychotherapy; Qualitative analysis; Quality of life; Rehabilitation; Social behavior; Social interactions; Social Sciences; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Task Performance and Analysis; Technology assessment; Usability; User interface; Virtual reality; Visual perception; Switzerland
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175999
• ISSN: 1932-6203

Despite growing interest in developing ecological assessment of difficulties in patients with Alzheimer's disease new methods assessing the cognitive difficulties related to functional activities are missing. To complete current evaluation, the use of Serious Games can be a promising approach as it offers the possibility to recreate a virtual environment with daily living activities and a precise and complete cognitive evaluation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usability and the screening potential of a new ecological tool for assessment of cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Eighteen patients with Alzheimer's disease and twenty healthy controls participated to the study. They were asked to complete six daily living virtual tasks assessing several cognitive functions: three navigation tasks, one shopping task, one cooking task and one table preparation task following a one-day scenario. Usability of the game was evaluated through a questionnaire and through the analysis of the computer interactions for the two groups. Furthermore, the performances in terms of time to achieve the task and percentage of completion on the several tasks were recorded. Results indicate that both groups subjectively found the game user friendly and they were objectively able to play the game without computer interactions difficulties. Comparison of the performances between the two groups indicated a significant difference in terms of percentage of achievement of the several tasks and in terms of time they needed to achieve the several tasks. This study suggests that this new Serious Game based assessment tool is a user-friendly and ecological method to evaluate the cognitive abilities related to the difficulties patients can encounter in daily living activities and can be used as a screening tool as it allowed to distinguish Alzheimer's patient's performance from healthy controls.