Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK.
Five Lives SAS, Tours, France.
Br J Psychiatry. 2024 Jun;224(6):245-251. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2024.18.
The rising number of dementia diagnoses and imminent adoption of disease-modifying treatments necessitate innovative approaches to identify individuals at risk, monitor disease course and intervene non-pharmacologically earlier in the disease course. Digital assessments of dementia risk and cognitive function have the potential to outperform traditional in-person assessments in terms of their affordability, accuracy and longitudinal tracking abilities. However, their accessibility and reliability in older adults is unclear.
To evaluate the usability and reliability of a smartphone assessment of lifestyle and cognitive factors relevant to dementia risk in a group of UK-based older adults.
Cognitively healthy adults ( = 756) recruited through the Dementias Platform UK Great Minds volunteer register completed three assessments of cognitive function and dementia risk over a 3-month period and provided usability feedback on the Five Lives smartphone application (app). We evaluated cognitive test scores for age, gender and higher education effects, normality distributions, test-retest reliability and their relationship with participants' lifestyle dementia risk factors.
Participants found the app 'easy to use', 'quick to complete' and 'enjoyable'. The cognitive tests showed normal or near-to-normal distributions, variable test-retest reliabilities and age-related effects. Only tests of verbal ability showed gender and education effects. The cognitive tests did not correlate with lifestyle dementia risk scores.
The Five Lives assessment demonstrates high usability and reliability among older adults. These findings highlight the potential of digital assessments in dementia research and clinical practice, enabling improved accessibility and better monitoring of cognitive health on a larger scale than traditional in-person assessments.
随着痴呆症诊断数量的增加和即将采用的疾病修饰治疗方法，有必要创新方法来识别处于风险中的个体，监测疾病进程，并在疾病早期进行非药物干预。痴呆症风险和认知功能的数字评估在可负担性、准确性和纵向跟踪能力方面有可能优于传统的面对面评估。然而，它们在老年人中的可及性和可靠性尚不清楚。
评估智能手机评估与痴呆症风险相关的生活方式和认知因素在一组英国老年人中的可用性和可靠性。
通过 Dementias Platform UK Great Minds 志愿者注册，招募认知健康的成年人（n = 756），他们在 3 个月的时间内完成了三次认知功能和痴呆症风险评估，并对 Five Lives 智能手机应用程序（app）提供了可用性反馈。我们评估了认知测试分数的年龄、性别和高等教育效应、正态分布、测试-重测可靠性以及与参与者的生活方式痴呆症风险因素的关系。
参与者认为该应用程序“易于使用”、“快速完成”且“令人愉快”。认知测试显示出正常或接近正常的分布、可变的测试-重测可靠性和与年龄相关的效应。只有语言能力测试显示出性别和教育效应。认知测试与生活方式痴呆症风险评分无相关性。
Five Lives 评估在老年人中表现出较高的可用性和可靠性。这些发现突显了数字评估在痴呆症研究和临床实践中的潜力，使更大规模的认知健康监测变得更加容易，并且比传统的面对面评估更能改善可及性。
