Abstract
We describe the iDO serious game developed during implementation of the Innovative Digital Training Opportunities on Dementia for Direct Care Workers (IDO) project. The project targets formal and informal caregivers of persons with dementia in order to improve caregiver knowledge and competences skills with a non-traditional source of training. This paper describes the steps faced to define the iDO caregiver behavior improvement model, design of game mechanics, development of game art and game characters, and implementation of gameplay. Furthermore, it aimed to assess the direct impact of the game on caregivers (n = 48) and seniors with early signs of dementia (n = 14) in Lithuania measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS). The caregivers’ GDS scores showed a decrease in negative answers from 13.4% (pre-game survey) to 5.2% (post-game survey). The seniors’ GDS scores showed a decrease in negative answers from 24.9% (pre-game survey) to 10.9% (post-game survey). The overall DAS scores increased from 6.07 in the pre-game survey to 6.41 in the post-game survey, statistically significant for both caregivers and seniors (p < 0.001), respectively. We conclude that the game aroused positive moods and attitudes for future caregivers of persons with dementia, indicating a more relaxed status and a decreased fear in accomplishing the caring process.
Highlights
Active and assisted living solutions can have a positive influence on the health and quality of life of older people
Nursing of people with dementia can utilize computer-based cognitive stimulation and other enjoyable activities to increasing care satisfaction [43]. This was proven by Tong et al [44] who showed that people with cognitive impairments may benefit from playing serious games, potentially assessing a variety of factors associated with cognitive decline in dementia, while keeping individuals active and stimulated thereby potentially slowing down or furthering cognitive decline [44]
Evolving from a combination of traditional e-learning and gamification, serious games can work as different standalone training solutions for doctors, formal and informal caregivers, and persons with dementia as was evolved by usability assessment studies [46] showing that a fulfillment of a specific task highly depends on the task itself and on the abilities of the subjects, making the concept especially challenging
Summary
Active and assisted living solutions can have a positive influence on the health and quality of life of older people. Simple daily speech and associated gestures like “please” and “thank you” may disappear, and, the person with dementia may even violently reject any care from both formal and informal caregivers. Routines for those caring for people with dementia who are more or less independent may be complicated and a source of high stress, to the extent that caregivers may end up losing their temper and immediately regret it, an alternation of moods which is no good for either of them. We designed an interactive mobile serious game aiming to allow caregivers to manage, a series of real world-based scenarios for dementia care and learn how to apply the problem-solving activities virtually developed to their daily routines. This paper elaborates on our previous work and experience presented in Reference [8]
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