The acceptability of TV-based game platforms as an instrument to support the cognitive evaluation of senior adults at home

Abstract

IntroductionThe computing capabilities of state-of-the-art television sets and media centres may facilitate the introduction of computer-assisted evaluation at home. This approach would help to overcome the drawbacks of traditional pen-and-paper evaluations administered in clinical facilities, as they could be performed in a more comfortable environment, the subject’s home, and they would be more flexible for designing complex environments for the evaluation of neuropsychological constructs that are difficult to assess through traditional testing. The objective of this work was to obtain some initial evidence about the technical acceptance by senior adults of serious games played at home on the TV set and therefore about the convenience of further investigating such an approach to cognitive assesment.Materials and MethodsWe developed a collection of games to be deployed on a TV environment. These games were tried by a group of senior adults at their homes. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to validate this approach. Surveys were performed to study the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of such technical setting as an instrument for their cognitive evaluation; that is, its technical acceptance. Subjective information collected from participants was correlated with actual interaction data captured. An additional survey was performed 36 months after pilot testing to have an indication about the long-term perceptions about usefulness and ease of use.ResultsMore than 90% of participating subjects perceived cognitive games on TV as useful or very useful. The majority of participants selected the TV set as their preferred option to interact with serious games at home, when compared to other devices such as smartphones, tablets or PCs. This result correlates with the number of participants perceiving them as easily usable or very easy to use, and also with automatically captured interaction data. Three out of four seniors expressed their interest in keeping the system at home after the pilot. Besides, these perceptions are fairly stable in time as shown by the survey performed 36 months after pilot testing.LimitationsAlthough participating users are a representative sample of the Galician population, which in turn is comparable to the population of most rural areas in Europe, a larger and more diverse user sample would be needed to obtain significant results for a wider population profile.ConclusionThe study confirmed the technical acceptance, that is, the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, of the TV-based home technical setting introduced as a means of cognitive evaluation. This study provides initial evidence on the viability of a TV-based serious games approach for cognitive longitudinal screening at home with little intervention of clinical professionals, thus contributing to the early detection of cognitive impairments in the senior population.

Theories Predicting End-User Acceptance of Telemedicine Use: Systematic Review

“…Nevertheless, both models aim to study acceptance. Both TAM and UTAUT have been used excessively to explain the use of several digital health applications, such as data sharing systems [29] and assessment tools for cognitive functions [30].…”

Design process and preliminary psychometric study of a video game to detect cognitive impairment in senior adults

“…Usability analysis was based on a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire to facilitate statistical analysis, ranging from strongly disagree (1 point) to strongly agree (5 points). The questionnaire is based on the TAM—Technology Acceptance Model ( Lee, Kozar & Larsen, 2003 ), which is considered more flexible to be adapted to different population samples in general, and to senior adults ( Costa et al, 2017 ) in particular. TAM indicates that the attitude towards a given technological system is determined by two subjective variables; namely, perceived ease of use (which provides an indication about the extent that a given individual believes that a particular technological system is easy to use) and perceived usefulness (which refers to the extent that a given individual believes that, using a particular technological system, his or her performance would improve).…”

“…For instance, regarding the initial methodological step to define solutions, gamification techniques were introduced due to the limitations of classical tests. In addition, a user-centered design methodology was applied and usability was considered as a design priority due to the target users’ profile ( Costa et al, 2017 ). Furthermore, being aware of the lack of psychometric maturity ( Valladares-Rodríguez et al, 2016 ) of the case studies found in the literature ( Plancher et al, 2012 ; Plancher et al, 2013 ; Sauzéon et al, 2015 ; Jebara et al, 2014 ), this aspect was instrumental to guide both the design and implementation processes.…”

Improving User Engagement and Social Participation of Elderly People Through a TV and Tablet-Based Communication and Entertainment Platform

“…A study of the acceptance of TV-based game platforms and simple games as an remote cognitive evaluation instrument [10] shows a 43% user-friendliness towards TV as a platform compared to smartphones with 29% and PC with 24% (n = 21, 65-90 years old). 91% of all participants stated that the TV is a very easy to use device and 75% would use TV-based gaming services again.…”