Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Mental Health
Date Submitted: Dec 19, 2017
Date Accepted: Jun 18, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Using Mobile Technology to Provide Personalized Reminiscence for People Living With Dementia and Their Carers: Appraisal of Outcomes From a Quasi-Experimental Study
Background:
Dementia is an international research priority. Reminiscence is an intervention that prompts memories and has been widely used as a therapeutic approach for people living with dementia. We developed a novel iPad app to support home-based personalized reminiscence. It is crucial that technology-enabled reminiscence interventions are appraised.
Objective:
We sought to measure the effect of technology-enabled reminiscence on mutuality (defined as the level of “closeness” between an adult living with dementia and their carer), quality of carer and patient relationship, and subjective well-being.
Methods:
A 19-week personalized reminiscence intervention facilitated by a program of training and a bespoke iPad app was delivered to people living with dementia and their family carers at their own homes. Participants (N=60) were recruited in dyads from a cognitive rehabilitation team affiliated with a large UK health care organization. Each dyad comprised a person living with early to moderate dementia and his or her family carer. Outcome measurement data were collected at baseline, midpoint, and intervention closure.
Results:
Participants living with dementia attained statistically significant increases in mutuality, quality of carer and patient relationship, and subjective well-being (P<.001 for all 3) from baseline to endpoint. Carers attained nonsignificant increases in mutuality and quality of carer and patient relationship and a nonsignificant decrease in subjective well-being.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that individual-specific reminiscence supported by an iPad app may be efficient in the context of early to moderate dementia. A robust randomized controlled trial of technology-enabled personalized reminiscence is warranted.
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