Best Practice Guidance
Human Interaction with Technology in Dementia

Guidance

When evaluating the impact of technology on the self-management of people with dementia, it is recommended to also evaluate how people succeed in coping psychologically and emotionally with the consequences of dementia in their daily life.

Explanation and examples

Measures to assess self-management in people with mild dementia evaluate how people compensate for their functional disabilities in daily life, but do not rate how people cope psychologically and emotionally with the consequences of dementia in their daily life (e.g. maintaining positive thinking and relationships), which is also a component of self-management. It is recommended to use additional instruments such as the Jalowiec Coping scale (1984) or the Qualidem (Ettema et al, 2007) for these aspects when assessing the impact of technology on self-management.

Guidance

Pilot studies should be conducted to help inform and reduce technical problems and improve accuracy prior to evaluating the effectiveness of new tablet interventions

Explanation and example

Our feasibility study of FindMyApps, a digital programme helping people with dementia to find useful apps for self-management and meaningful activities, showed that when people experienced technical problems they were sometimes not able to provide useful feedback about FindMyApps. For instance, some participants did not use the intervention anymore after they encountered technical problems. Even though a development and pilot study were conducted technical problems still occurred, such as: apps not being available anymore, explanation videos which did not work, personal settings not being saved, the button to go back being difficult to find, and links that did not work. To ensure that technical problems are resolved timely and do not interact with the evaluation of the tablet intervention, it is important to monitor for technical barriers by regular contact with people using the intervention in evaluation studies.

Guidance

When evaluating the benefits of technological interventions for people with dementia and their carers it is recommended to conduct a process evaluation to understand the possible influence of contextual, implementation and mechanisms of impact factors that may have influenced the intervention outcomes. This will also provide useful information on the conditions for successful implementation of the intervention.

Explanation and example

In our randomised controlled exploratory pilot trial into the FindMyApps programme, a tablet-based selection tool and training to help people with dementia to find apps for better self-management and meaningful activities, we conducted a process evaluation based on the British Medical Research Council’s (MRC) guidance for process evaluation of complex interventions (Moore et al., 2015).

This framework highlights the possible influence that contextual, implementation and mechanisms of impact factors may have on intervention outcomes. The process evaluation in the FindMyApps study provided very relevant information. For instance, with regard to contextual factors we found that it is important that the person with dementia has someone who is easy to approach and who can help them in case of practical problems, and that a helpdesk is in place for more complicated questions and technical problems.

With regard to implementation, it proved important to check if and how much a participant had experience in working with technological devices, and to adapt their training accordingly. Additionally, it proved necessary to personalise the approach to a participants’ awareness of their deficits. This was largely because some people with dementia had a more accurate understanding of their abilities and limitations with respect to their deficits than others. With regard to mechanisms of impact, we found that users who regularly practiced and who’s caregivers helped them by means of the errorless learning method learned to use FindMyApps easier than users who practiced less and who’s caregivers were less active in guiding them by using errorless learning.

This information is not only relevant for the outcome evaluation, but also to get insight into conditions for successful implementation of FindMyApps.

Guidance

People with dementia can have difficulty finding apps for self-management, meaningful activities and social participation that match their needs, interests and abilities. A tool that helps them find such apps is therefore recommended.

Explanation and example

People with dementia often experience unmet needs in their self-management, meaningful activities and social participation. Apps and technological interventions can potentially help them fulfil these needs and also decrease the burden for caregivers.

The last decade many apps have been developed that can support people with dementia in managing daily life, engaging in activities and staying in touch with their social network. However, people with dementia may have difficulty finding apps that match their needs, interests and abilities, FindMyApps is a selection tool that aims to help people find, download and use apps for self-management and meaningful activities, which are dementia-friendly and meet their needs, interests and capabilities.

A randomized controlled exploratory trial into the effectiveness of FindMyApps showed that people with dementia who were offered this tool more frequently downloaded and used apps for self-management and meaningful activities than people who did not have access to this tool. This confirmed the usefulness of the tool. Therefore, a tool such as FindMyApps is recommended for people with dementia and their caregivers to ease the search for suitable apps.

Guidance

More high quality, ecologically valid, controlled studies must be planned, funded and executed in order to properly evaluate the effectiveness of technologies designed to be used by people with dementia and to improve social participation and self-management.

Explanation and examples

A systematic review found that in the whole world only nine controlled evaluation studies with technologies designed for people with dementia have been carried out in ecologically valid settings, to assess effectiveness in improving social participation and self-management. Controlled studies are the most effective way of conducting unbiased evaluations, from which causal inference can be drawn. Policy-makers should be demanding this level of evidence as a condition of investment in such technologies. So far, studies have been conducted with VR-based technologies, other wearable technologies, and software applications. However, only a single study was found to be of good quality. Other technologies for people with dementia have not yet been the subject of a single ecologically-valid, controlled study with these outcomes (this includes, for example, social robots). In order to conduct high quality studies, researchers must ensure that studies are adequately statistically powered based on a sufficiently large sample; include active technology-based control interventions, so that is controlled for attention; and conduct and report intention-to-treat analyses, taking into account data of all participant to the study, including dropouts, and not only those who completed the intervention. Funding bodies must recognize the need to fund such studies accordingly. Clinicians, healthcare providers, policymakers and users of technology should expect and demand that such high-quality evidence is available to support decision-making.

Guidance

Researchers interested in Social health in dementia need to develop instruments to measure the self-management aspect of Social health. Self-management is clearly defined as one of the three domains of Social health besides the capacity to fulfil one’s potential and social participation. Whilst several instruments have been proposed for the measurement of self-management, all have limitations e.g. not measuring the construct as understood in the context of Social health (managing one’s own life), being too burdensome for participants, or ceiling effects on scale of total scores. Instruments which measure the construct of self-management, as understood in this context, without burdening participants and with sufficient discriminatory power for use in intervention studies are needed in order to effectively evaluate interventions aiming to improve Social health in dementia.

Explanation and Examples:

A review of existing instruments which may be used to measure self-management found no options specifically designed to measure the construct as understood in the context of Social health in dementia (to manage one’s own life). In the FindMyApps pilot study, the Self-Management Activities Scale (SMAS) was used, but proved too burdensome to administer. In the FindMyApps definitive randomized controlled trial, another option was used to measure self-management, the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT), which was less burdensome but also less well-aligned to the construct. The usefulness of the ASCOT proved to be further limited by ceiling effects when used in the population participating in this intervention study (people with MCI or mild dementia). Research should be undertaken to confirm consensus amongst people with dementia, their caregivers and researchers in the field on the operational definition of self-management within the context of Social health; to compose statements and scales which investigate the components of the operational definition; and to test the psychometric properties (reliability, validity, responsiveness), feasibility and discriminatory power (precision with which between- and within-subjects variation can be detected) of the resulting instrument in a population of people with MCI/mild dementia, in both an observational and interventional study setting.

Guidance

See recommendation no. 3.2.5.1