Cognitive Stimulation and Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) in Alzheimer's Disease: A Systematic Review

Cognitive stimulation (CS) is an individualized approach to help cognitively impaired Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and their families in identifying personally relevant goals and devising strategies for addressing these. Information-Comunication Technologies (ICT) applications can considerably contribute to improve the CS. A deeper knowledge and experience in this field is needed to allow the application of ICT concepts and approaches to the CS treatment of AD. We reviewed the literature and identified systematic reviews of cohort studies, and other authoritative reports. Our selection criteria for CS and ICT in Alzheimer’s disease included: (1) CS, (2) ICT, and (3) AD.

We identified 154 studies published between 2000 and 2015, of which 9 met inclusion criteria. Most studies reported that older adults with AD need to be technologically savvy in order to successfully complete or benefit from training. All the studies on small samples show that the introduction of ad-hoc ICT tools are accepted, used and could improve the quality of life increasing the permanence at home. From the state of the art point of view some researchers have investigated new solutions for cognitive assistance in the last three years (serious games and robotic systems). The research consisted in exploiting software platform allowing the support of new assistive tools that are less expensive and more accessible and could be used as a re-education tool helping to slow the decline of people suffering from AD.
Most of ICT solutions provided memory challenges and improved brain performances.
INTRODUCTION