Worldwide population aging makes dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as its most common cause, among this century’s major public health problems. Digital tools are increasingly seen as sustainable solutions for (early) AD diagnosis and dementia prevention, mitigating the growing gap between the available workforce and AD healthcare demands. Although promising tools have been developed in the AD and dementia prevention context, implementation lags, and challenges include the risk of increasing inequality. To move towards inclusive and sustainable implementation of digital tools for AD, the APH fellowship project of APH-researcher Leonie Visser provides insight in the available tools, their developmental stage and the included study samples, and the influence of individual factors on people’s intention to use such tools.
Visser: "For this APH fellowship, I joined efforts with PhD-student Tanja de Rijke (ABOARD project), research assistant Kyra Kaijser and UD Thomas Engelsma (among others). So far, we have conducted a review of current literature on digital tools for citizens-at-risk and/or patients in pre-dementia stages. We included 39 articles, of which 25 articles on dementia prevention tools, 4 on tools for diagnosis, 9 on tools to support patient-orchestrated care, and one article on a tool for both prevention and patient-orchestrated care.Digital tools were developed/tested in people with varying cognitive abilities, yet most studies centered on highly-educated people, women, aged 60 years and older, and few reported on factors such as digital literacy. Most tools were in an early maturity stage, i.e., prototyping or pilot testing. A manuscript will be submitted for publication soon.
In addition, we set out to examine the relationships between various personal factors, such as digital literacy, dementia risk and financial scarcity, and citizen’s intention to use digital tools in the AD and dementia context. We conducted a cross-sectional survey, first of all online, by using Hersenonderzoek.nl (N=507), and are now in the process of enriching that sample with for example citizens with a more diverse cultural background, also including a paper-pencil version of the questionnaire. For that, we are working together with 5 nursing students from InHolland. We are very much looking forward to the results!"