Amabili Giulio, Maranesi Elvira, Margaritini Arianna, Bonfigli Anna Rita, Felici Elisa, Barbarossa Federico, Benadduci Marco, Gosetto Laetitia, Guebey Julie, Grimstad Terje, Hellman Riitta, Marin Andrei Iulian, Boye Lars Thomas, Anghel Ionut Manuel, Cioara Tudor, Bevilacqua Roberta
Scientific Direction, Istituto Nazionale di Riposo e Cura per Anziani, Ancona, Italy.
Division of Medical Information Sciences, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2025 Sep 2;14:e67601. doi: 10.2196/67601.
Dementia is challenging society in terms of the quality of life, the costs of health care systems, and caregivers' burden. Dementia is often preceded by a status of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), during which a healthy lifestyle and cognitive therapy seem to be effective in counteracting the decline.
The engAGE (Managing Cognitive Decline Through Theatre Therapy, Artificial Intelligence, and Social Robot-Driven Interventions) project aimed to build a technological platform to counteract cognitive decline in older adults with MCI through both cognitive therapy and lifestyle management.
The engAGE platform was built around the social robot Pepper, which provides cognitive therapy. An activity tracker and a mobile app were also integrated within the platform to help older adults with MCI monitor their sleep and physical activity, in addition to offering cognitive games at home. The proof of concept (PoC) of engAGE was designed as a 6-month long randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to test the solution in three European countries: Italy, Switzerland, and Norway. During this period, under the supervision of a psychologist or a therapist, Pepper provided cognitive therapy on a weekly basis at health care or daycare facilities. In parallel, the use of the mobile app and the activity tracker was recommended on a daily basis. Participants were recruited through health care institutions and care organizations and evaluated through face-to-face interviews. The primary interest of the study was to assess the impact of engAGE on cognitive capacity through the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Memory Assessment Clinic Questionnaire (MAC-Q). In addition, changes in social engagement and quality of life were measured through the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS). The PoC also focused on the acceptability and usability of engAGE, evaluated through the System Usability Scale (SUS) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) questionnaire. In addition, data were collected regarding the frequency of weekly sessions and access to the mobile app, as well as activity tracker measurements.
Data collection commenced in November 2023 and finished in July 2024, with the enrollment of 49 older adults with MCI (n=40, 81.6%, assigned to the experimental group [EG] and n=9, 18.4%, to the control group [CG]) conducted from October 2023 to April 2024. Data analysis was concluded in November 2024, and results will be published by 2026.
The engAGE PoC represents an innovative study focused on the impact of a technology-based multidomain intervention designed for older adults with MCI that aimed to counteract cognitive decline through cognitive training, as well as improvement in terms of the quality of life, social engagement, physical activity, and sleep quality of primary end users.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06302686; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06302686.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR1-10.2196/67601.
痴呆症在生活质量、医疗保健系统成本以及护理人员负担方面给社会带来了挑战。痴呆症之前通常会出现轻度认知障碍（MCI）状态，在此期间，健康的生活方式和认知疗法似乎能有效对抗衰退。
engAGE（通过戏剧疗法、人工智能和社交机器人驱动干预管理认知衰退）项目旨在构建一个技术平台，通过认知疗法和生活方式管理来对抗患有MCI的老年人的认知衰退。
engAGE平台围绕提供认知疗法的社交机器人Pepper构建。一个活动追踪器和一个移动应用程序也集成在该平台内，以帮助患有MCI的老年人监测他们的睡眠和身体活动，此外还在家中提供认知游戏。engAGE的概念验证（PoC）被设计为一项为期6个月的随机对照试验（RCT），旨在在三个欧洲国家（意大利、瑞士和挪威）测试该解决方案。在此期间，在心理学家或治疗师的监督下，Pepper每周在医疗保健或日托设施提供认知疗法。同时，建议每天使用移动应用程序和活动追踪器。参与者通过医疗机构和护理组织招募，并通过面对面访谈进行评估。该研究的主要兴趣在于通过蒙特利尔认知评估（MoCA）和记忆评估诊所问卷（MAC-Q）评估engAGE对认知能力的影响。此外，通过加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）孤独量表和华威-爱丁堡心理健康量表（WEMWBS）测量社会参与度和生活质量的变化。PoC还关注engAGE的可接受性和可用性，通过系统可用性量表（SUS）和技术接受与使用统一理论（UTAUT）问卷进行评估。此外，收集了关于每周课程频率、移动应用程序的使用情况以及活动追踪器测量数据。
数据收集于2023年11月开始，2024年7月结束，2023年10月至2024年4月招募了49名患有MCI的老年人（n = 40，81.6%，分配到实验组[EG]；n = 9，18.4%，分配到对照组[CG]）。数据分析于2024年11月结束，结果将于2026年公布。
engAGE PoC是一项创新研究，重点关注针对患有MCI的老年人设计的基于技术的多领域干预的影响，该干预旨在通过认知训练对抗认知衰退，并改善主要最终用户的生活质量、社会参与度、身体活动和睡眠质量。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06302686；https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT0
