Adoption and Use of a Mobile Health Application in Older Adults for Cognitive Stimulation

Serious games could be used to improve cognitive functions in the elderly. We evaluated the adoption of a new tablet application dedicated to cognitive stimulation in the elderly. The Stim'Art application offers various serious games to work different cognitive functions (memory, attention, concentration, etc.). The usage of fifteen older adults was followed for six months. The type of the game, the number of launches for each game, the time spent on each game, the difficulty level, the success rate and perceived well-being of users have been studied and compared at the end of the first and the sixth months. The participants have played half an hour per day on average. The average time of playing per day in the sixth month was significantly higher than the average time of playing during the first month (p value < 7 * 10−4). The same result was found for the average number of game launches per day (p value < 7 * 10−4). However, older people seem not to launch more difficult levels in the last month. The success rate at sixth months was significantly higher than the success rate at the end of the first month (p value < 6.4 * 10−4). Generally, seniors have had an improvement in their wellbeing score judged by themselves. Our study showed that the mobile application receives a good admission from users. The results are promising and can pave the way for improving cognitive function in the elderly patients. The use of tablets and the constitution of serious games in close cooperation with health professionals and elderly patients (the end user), are likely to provide satisfactory results to improve healthcare provided for elderly patients suffering from cognitive disorders.