Passively-Measured Routine Home Computer Activity and Application Use Can Detect Mild Cognitive Impairment and Correlate with Important Cognitive Functions in Older Adulthood

Abstract

Background: Computer use is a cognitively complex instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) that has been linked to cognitive functioning in older adulthood, yet little work has explored its capacity to detect incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Objective: To examine whether routine home computer use (general computer use as well as use of specific applications) could effectively discriminate between older adults with and without MCI, as well as explore associations between use of common computer applications and cognitive domains known to be important for IADL performance. Methods: A total of 60 community-dwelling older adults (39 cognitively healthy, 21 with MCI) completed a neuropsychological evaluation at study baseline and subsequently had their routine home computer use behaviors passively recorded for three months. Results: Compared to those with MCI, cognitively healthy participants spent more time using the computer, had a greater number of computer sessions, and had an earlier mean time of first daily computer session. They also spent more time using email and word processing applications, and used email, search, and word processing applications on a greater number of days. Better performance in several cognitive domains, but in particular memory and language, was associated with greater frequency of browser, word processing, search, and game application use. Conclusion: Computer and application use are useful in identifying older adults with MCI. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether decreases in overall computer use and specific computer application use are predictors of incident cognitive decline.

Cognitive dispersion is related to subtle objective daily functioning changes in older adults with and without cognitive impairment

“…Outcome variables were the nine continuous sensor variables that have demonstrated group differences between CN and MCI individuals. [17][18][19][20][21] The Benjamini-Hochberg procedure with the Stats_PADJUST extension for SPSS was utilized to correct for multiple comparisons with a false discovery rate set at 0.10.…”

“…Although simulation tasks have several strengths, they are time‐consuming and have reduced ecological validity in comparison to assessments in real‐world settings. With dramatic advances in digital technologies, using passive sensors in one's own home environment represents a promising approach to capturing and monitoring subtle daily functioning changes early in the disease spectrum 2,14–21 . Research conducted with passive sensor technologies has demonstrated the ability to detect subtle functional changes in important IADLs such as medication management, 19,20 driving, 18 and computer use 17,21 in older adults with MCI.…”

“…With dramatic advances in digital technologies, using passive sensors in one's own home environment represents a promising approach to capturing and monitoring subtle daily functioning changes early in the disease spectrum. 2,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Research conducted with passive sensor technologies has demonstrated the ability to detect subtle functional changes in important IADLs such as medication management, 19,20 driving, 18 and computer use 17,21 in older adults with MCI. Despite increasing interest in these technologies, no studies have yet examined the relationship between cognitive dispersion and real-world daily functioning as assessed by passive sensor-based activity monitoring.…”

Online monitoring of financial capacity in older adults: Feasibility and initial findings

“…Real world functional metrics of “everyday cognition” have been shown to reflect the earliest harbingers of cognitive decline. 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 Similarly, longitudinal, objective monitoring of changes in financial capacity may further the development of truly individualized, ecologically valid assessment methods.…”

“…One promising approach to detecting changes in financial task performance is a monitoring system embedded in a person‐specific, day‐to‐day setting. Real world functional metrics of “everyday cognition” have been shown to reflect the earliest harbingers of cognitive decline 7–13 . Similarly, longitudinal, objective monitoring of changes in financial capacity may further the development of truly individualized, ecologically valid assessment methods.…”