Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment Serious Games: A Systematic Analysis in Smartphone Application Markets.

BACKGROUND

Patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment can employ serious games to assess and improve their cognitive status.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the cognitive aspects of the MMSE and ACE-R tests that are supported by available games.

METHODS

We searched cognitive games available in online application markets (Play Store, Galaxy Store, and App Store) using keywords: Alzheimer's Disease, dementia, and mild cognitive impairment. Game scenarios were extracted and assessed by a neurologist to determine the appropriateness of the scenarios for patients and cognitive aspects supported by the games.

RESULTS

We found 416 games; 135 of them were duplicates, and 237 of them were completely irrelevant to the study objective. A neurologist evaluated the remaining scenarios to see if aspects of each scenario matched the MMSE and ACE- R tests. There were 37 scenarios left in the end. These scenarios are associated with 18 different games. Most of the available scenarios are suitable for attention and orientation.

CONCLUSION

Existing cognitive games may be used to several different cognitive aspects. Some of these scenarios have been used to assess cognitive status, while others have been used to improve it. The majority of available cognitive games have not been subjected to any research. As a result, it is unclear what impact they could have on the cognitive condition of the elderly with cognitive impairment. As a result, it is critical to assess these games.