Evaluation of video reminding technology for persons with dementia

Abstract

One of the main features associated with those suffering from dementia is memory loss. Recent studies have shown that the deployment of technological reminder based solutions, have to a certain extent, been capable of alleviating some of the issues associated with memory loss. Nevertheless, technical and usability challenges are still major hindering factors to large scale uptake. This work presents the details of the evaluation of a mobile phone based video reminding system with 4 persons suffering from mild dementia. We gathered 101 days worth of usability data during an evaluation period of 5 weeks along with a qualitative collection of pre and post evaluation questionnaires. The results from our evaluation have shown that out of 216 reminders delivered during the evaluation period only 18 of them were not acknowledged by the persons with dementia. Upon examining the post-evaluations, it was found that the carers played a significant role in terms of the success of the solution and that an initial settling in period of on average 14 days was required before users felt comfortable using the technology. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.