Abstract
Background: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) impairs the ability to carry out daily activities, reduces independence and quality of life and increases caregiver burden. Our understanding of functional decline has traditionally relied on reports by family and caregivers, which are subjective and vulnerable to recall bias. The Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable sensor technologies promise to provide objective, affordable, and reliable means for monitoring and understanding function. However, human factors for its acceptance are relatively unexplored.Objective: The Public Involvement (PI) activity presented in this paper aims to capture the preferences, priorities and concerns of people with AD and their caregivers for using monitoring wearables. Their feedback will drive device selection for clinical research, starting with the study of the RADAR-AD project.Method: The PI activity involved the Patient Advisory Board (PAB) of the RADAR-AD project, comprised of people with dementia across Europe and their caregivers (11 and 10, respectively). A set of four devices that optimally represent various combinations of aspects and features from the variety of currently available wearables (e.g., weight, size, comfort, battery life, screen types, water-resistance, and metrics) was presented and experienced hands-on. Afterwards, sets of cards were used to rate and rank devices and features and freely discuss preferences.Results: Overall, the PAB was willing to accept and incorporate devices into their daily lives. For the presented devices, the aspects most important to them included comfort, convenience and affordability. For devices in general, the features they prioritized were appearance/style, battery life and water resistance, followed by price, having an emergency button and a screen with metrics. The metrics valuable to them included activity levels and heart rate, followed by respiration rate, sleep quality and distance. Some concerns were the potential complexity, forgetting to charge the device, the potential stigma and data privacy.Conclusions: The PI activity explored the preferences, priorities and concerns of the PAB, a group of people with dementia and caregivers across Europe, regarding devices for monitoring function and decline, after a hands-on experience and explanation. They highlighted some expected aspects, metrics and features (e.g., comfort and convenience), but also some less expected (e.g., screen with metrics).
Highlights
Current estimates suggest that there are around 9 million of people living with dementia across Europe (Alzheimer Europe, 2020) of which the most prevalent one is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) dementia
The current conceptualization of AD has been extended to encompass the full spectrum of the disease, including both pre-dementia, i.e., preclinical and prodromal AD or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) due to AD, and dementia phases (Alzheimer’s dementia) (Alzheimer Europe, 2020)
This paper focuses on understanding the unique preferences, needs and concerns of people with dementia and caregivers at the core of a device selection process for a wearable in the framework of the RADAR-AD trials
Summary
Current estimates suggest that there are around 9 million of people living with dementia across Europe (Alzheimer Europe, 2020) of which the most prevalent one is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) dementia. An important aspect of the diagnosis, in AD and other dementias, is functioning, where current assessment methods rely mostly on self-report and observation by the caregivers. While this information is important, it requires considerable effort and time and still may be inaccurate. Existing traditional monitoring methods could be complemented by remote, objective, non-intrusive and relatively effortless monitoring, using technology.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.