Verification of the effectiveness of serious games in assisting the screening of mild cognitive impairment among the elderly in the community
Objective The aim of this study was to design a serious game(Whack-a-Mole game)and investigate its effec-tiveness in assisting the screening of mild cognitive impairment among the elderly in the community.Methods A total of 178 elderlies were recruited from the community using convenience sampling and were categorized into a non-cognitive impair-ment group(109 cases)and a mild cognitive impairment group(69 cases).Game scores and reaction times were compared across three speed levels(slow,medium and fast)in two game modes(time-limited and non-time-limited),and their differ-ences and correlations with the scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE)were analyzed.Results The variance test results indicated statistically significant differences between the total game scores of the two groups of elderly in the time-limited mode(fast and medium speed levels)(t=17.749,P＜0.001;t=17.515,P＜0.001),and in the reaction times of the game at the fast and medium speed levels(Z=10.070,P＜0.001;Z=7.991,P＜0.001).Pearson test re-vealed positive correlations between the total scores of the game in the time-limited mode(fast and medium speed levels)of the two groups of elderlies and their scores on the MMSE(r=0.765,r=0.652).Furthermore,the correlation between the reaction time of the game at the fast and medium speed levels and their scores on the MMSE was showing a negative correla-tion(r=-0.607,r=-0.644).Logistic regression analyses demonstrated a statistically significant difference between fast and medium speed game scores in the time-limited mode(P＜0.001).The area under the curve of fast and medium speed game scores in the time-limited mode were 0.966、0.961 and the optimal cut-off point were 13.5、14.5,respectively.Conclusion The fast and medium-speed game scores of the serious game in the time-limited mode are feasible for assisting the screening of mild cognitive impairment among the elderly.It is recommended to be applied as a routine census game for screening the eld-erly in the community.
serious gameselderlymild cognitive impairmentcognitive function
万方数据
维普
