Research Article
CareD: Non-Pharmacological Assistance for Dementia Patients
@ARTICLE{10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.160073, author={Kainat Siddiq and Narmeen Bawany and Tehreem Qamar and Ayesha Naveed and Bisma Arif and Mariam Usman and Mehek Jamal}, title={CareD: Non-Pharmacological Assistance for Dementia Patients}, journal={EAI Endorsed Transactions on Pervasive Health and Technology}, volume={4}, number={16}, publisher={EAI}, journal_a={PHAT}, year={2018}, month={10}, keywords={Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive therapies, Dementia, Mobile App for Older Adults}, doi={10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.160073} }- Kainat Siddiq
Narmeen Bawany
Tehreem Qamar
Ayesha Naveed
Bisma Arif
Mariam Usman
Mehek Jamal
Year: 2018
CareD: Non-Pharmacological Assistance for Dementia Patients
PHAT
EAI
DOI: 10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.160073
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Dementia is a common form of Alzheimer disease which is affecting the quality of older adults’ life. Non-drug treatment such as cognitive therapies are more beneficial for such patients. These days, mobile applications are providing tremendous opportunities for aiding the medicinal treatment.
OBJECTIVES: This paper presents CareD – a mobile application based solution for dementia patients and their caregivers. Unlike, other available mobile applications, CareD provide a single resolution for maximum dementia related complications. The main objective of this application is to improve the quality of life of dementia patients and facilitate their caregivers. CareD also aims at providing native language support i.e. Urdu to the people of Pakistan.
METHODS: CareD comprises of various modules including cognitive therapy sessions, patient tracking, reminders, healthy living to aid dementia patients in their everyday activities. Experimental study involving dementia patients and their caregivers has been carried out to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of this application.
RESULTS: Twenty patients were included in the study. Results showed that CareD is very effective and helpful in decreasing the disease progression as well as in relieving the burden of caregivers.
CONCLUSION: CareD has been found to be a useful and efficient solution for dementia patients. It was observed that utilization of mobile application was progressively successful in reducing the stress of both; patients and their caregivers. The use of native language Urdu made the application more learnable for older adults and improved its acceptance.
Copyright © 2018 Kainat Siddiq et al., licensed to EAI. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.