DailyCog: A Real-World Functional Cognitive Mobile Application for Evaluating Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in Parkinson’s Disease

Sara Rosenblum,Sharon Hassin-Baer,Sonya Meyer,Tal Nevo,Maayan Sinai,Ariella Richardson

doi:10.3390/s21051788

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting patient functioning and quality of life. Aside from the motor symptoms of PD, cognitive impairment may occur at early stages of PD and has a substantial impact on patient emotional and physical health. Detecting these early signs through actual daily functioning while the patient is still functionally independent is challenging. We developed DailyCog—a smartphone application for the detection of mild cognitive impairment. DailyCog includes an environment that simulates daily tasks, such as making a drink and shopping, as well as a self-report questionnaire related to daily events performed at home requiring executive functions and visual–spatial abilities, and psychomotor speed. We present the detailed design of DailyCog and discuss various considerations that influenced the design. We tested DailyCog on patients with mild cognitive impairment in PD. Our case study demonstrates how the markers we used coincide with the cognitive levels of the users. We present the outcome of our usability study that found that most users were able to use our app with ease, and provide details on how various features were used, along with some of the difficulties that were identified.

Highlights

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, affecting about 1% of the elderly population, and its multifaceted motor and non-motor afflictions have profound effects on patient functioning and quality of life [1,2]
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in PD patients without dementia is present in 25%
Since we focus on the cognitive aspects of PD one might consider apps designed for patients with dementia [26,27]

Summary

Introduction

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, affecting about 1% of the elderly population, and its multifaceted motor and non-motor afflictions have profound effects on patient functioning and quality of life [1,2]. Among the non-motor symptoms of the disease, both cognitive impairment (CI) and dementia and their implications for patient quality of life have been increasingly recognized [2,3]. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in PD patients without dementia is present in 25%. The detection of PD prior to the emergence of motor manifestations is of great importance [1], as MCI in PD patients may have a greater effect on the individual’s daily function abilities and their emotio-socio-behavioral status [5]. The question of how to detect MCI in a phase in which they are still functionally independent, not dependent on their caregivers, is still unclear [6]

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