Mobile Application for Real-Time Food Plan Management for Alzheimer Patients through Design-Based Research

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that affects many individuals, mainly in an older age group. Over time, it leads to other diseases that affect their autonomy and independence. The quality of food ingestion is a way to mitigate the disease and preserve the patient’s well-being, which substantially impacts their health. Many existing applications for food plan management focus on the prescription of food plans but do not provide feedback to the nutritionist on the real amount of ingested calories. It makes these applications inadequate for these diseases, where monitoring and control are most important. This paper proposed the design and development of a mobile application to monitor and control the food plans of Alzheimer’s patients, focused on informal caregivers and respective patients. It allows both the realistic visualization of the food plans and users to adjust their consumption and register extra meals and water consumption. The interface design process comprises a two-level approach: the user centered design methodology that accounts for users’ needs and requirements and the user experience questionnaire to measure user satisfaction. The results show that the interface is intuitive, visually appealing, and easy to use, adjusted for users that require a particular level of understanding regarding specific subjects.