Impact of Adapted Digital Tools in the Taken Care of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia in Elderly Aged of 60 Years and over Living at Home: A Systematic Review - Abstract
Objective: To carry out a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the impact of adapted digital tools in elderly aged of 60 years and over, living at home with neurocognitive disorders associated with behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD).
Methods: PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, Scopus and The New England Journal of Medecine databases were searched carried out from 13/02/1996 to 13/02/2023. Randomized clinical trial, randomized trial and quasi-experimental study were selected, and relevant data were extracted for qualitative synthesis. The studies were conducted on a sample of elderly aged 60 years and over living at home. Taken care of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia was made by adapted digital tools.
Results: Of the 6,642 of records identified, 367 reports were eligible, of which 4 met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Of the 12 behavioural domains, the neuropsychiatric symptoms identified were depression and anxiety as BPSD. Actiwatch Spectrum PRO, WeCareAdvisor™ and telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy were identified as digital tools. Only diseases in the affective domain, including depression and anxiety, were taken care, using the batteries of comprehensive and systematic neuropsychiatric tests. There is very little data on the utilization of adapted digital tools among elderly aged of 60 years and over with BPSD at home.
Conclusions: These digital tools have been effective. They have reduced anxiety and depression symptoms and improved the quality of life of elderly aged of 60 years and over with BPSD. Methodological weaknesses, including small sample sizes, could lead to very cautious interpretation of the results of these studies. In future work, it would be useful to integrate an economic model concerning the adapted digital tools.