Guo Yuqi, Yang Fan, Hu Fei, Li Wei, Ruggiano Nicole, Lee Hee Yun
School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, United States.
Social Welfare Program, School of Public Administration, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China.
JMIR Aging. 2020 Jan 24;3(1):e15290. doi: 10.2196/15290.
Alzheimer disease and related dementias (AD/RD) are progressive neurocognitive disorders that currently affect approximately 50 million people worldwide. Mobile phone apps have been well-integrated into daily lives and can be used to deliver and promote health care. There is an increase in the use of technology to provide care and support to AD/RD patients and their families.
This study aimed to review apps designed for AD/RD patients and analyze the benefits of, and challenges to, such technological solutions.
A systematic approach was applied to review the availability, content, features, and quality of mobile phone apps to support self-care among AD/RD patients.
The initial search for this review was conducted in January 2019, and the screening and analysis of the included apps were completed in May 2019. A total of 14 apps were included from an initial search of 245 apps. The top 3 features were alert (9/14, 64%), self-care tips (6/14, 42%), and social networking capacity (5/14, 35%). On average, the readability of the apps was a tenth-grade reading level (SD 3.06). The overall quality was 3.71 out of 5 (SD 1.37).
Our findings suggest that currently available apps for AD/RD patients may not meet complex needs and may be challenging to use, given the possible impaired communication ability associated with AD/RD. Therefore, high-quality apps need to be developed and rigorously evaluated for feasibility and efficacy.
阿尔茨海默病及相关痴呆症（AD/RD）是渐进性神经认知障碍，目前全球约有5000万人受其影响。手机应用程序已很好地融入日常生活，可用于提供和促进医疗保健。利用技术为AD/RD患者及其家人提供护理和支持的情况日益增多。
本研究旨在回顾为AD/RD患者设计的应用程序，并分析此类技术解决方案的益处和挑战。
采用系统方法回顾支持AD/RD患者自我护理的手机应用程序的可用性、内容、功能和质量。
本综述的初始检索于2019年1月进行，纳入应用程序的筛选和分析于2019年5月完成。从对245个应用程序的初始检索中总共纳入了14个应用程序。排名前三的功能是提醒（9/14，64%）、自我护理提示（6/14，42%）和社交网络功能（5/14，35%）。这些应用程序的平均可读性为十年级阅读水平（标准差3.06）。总体质量为5分中的3.71分（标准差1.37）。
我们的研究结果表明，鉴于AD/RD可能导致沟通能力受损，目前可供AD/RD患者使用的应用程序可能无法满足复杂需求，且使用起来可能具有挑战性。因此，需要开发高质量的应用程序，并对其可行性和有效性进行严格评估。
