JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The public global health emergency of coronavirus disease 2019 has created a rapidly evolving situation worldwide with some countries, such as Spain, implementing restrictions of lockdown, quarantine and confinement. Vulnerable populations to this outbreak and its physical and mental health impact include community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia. Telehealth is becoming a potential major tool to deliver healthcare and support preventing the risk of exposure, especially for those at higher risk.

Objective:

This study aimed to explore the physical and mental health and well-being impact in community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia during the coronavirus disease confinement whilst providing health and social support and to study the effect of a TV-based assistive integrated technology (TV-AssistDem).

Methods:

100 community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia residing in Spain, who were participants of the TV-AssistDem clinical trial, from both the intervention and control groups, were called via telephone, out of which 93 responded. Participants were interviewed from the 25th of March to 6th of April 2020.

Results:

Respondents were mostly women (64.5%) aged 73. 34 (SD=6.07) who lived accompanied (74.2%). Lockdown measures forced 18.3% to change their living arrangements. Health status was mainly found optimal presenting no COVID-19 symptoms (95.7%). Grocery and pharmacy outings were mostly done by family members (73.1%). Respondents reported overall well-being (61.3%) and a maintained sleep (69.9%), however those living alone in comparison with those living accompanied presented greater negative feelings and sleeping problems. Leisure activities included physical, intellectual, recreational and social activities, such as walks (56.9%), memory exercises (34.8%), watching TV (59.8%) and telephone calls to family and friends (97.8%). Respondents reported accessing moderately or too much (63.8%) COVID-19 information, using predominantly Television sets (96.7%) and understanding this information in extreme (61.5%). Some respondents had contacted health and social services (38.6%) whilst others requested information regarding these services during the telephone call (31.2%). Regarding differences between the intervention and control group there were no significant differences in health and well-being. Respondents with TV-AssistDem did more memory exercises (52.2% vs. 17.4%; P<.001) than controls.

Conclusions:

These findings suggest that our vulnerable population at risk have protective factors against confinement such as a support network which guarantees food and medical supplies preventing them from risk of exposure to COVID-19, a daily routine which includes leisure activities and social connectedness using Information and Communication Technologies. Television sets stand out as preferred technological devices when it comes to accessing COVID-19 information and enjoying leisure time, especially in terms of cognitive stimulation, demonstrating the potential of TV-based telehealth, such as TV-AssistDem. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03653234