A Tablet-Based Volunteer-Mediated Intervention for Cognitively Impaired Older People: A Pretest–Posttest

Abstract

Purpose: This study evaluated the potential effectiveness of a tablet-based, volunteer-led intervention (Lok Chi In-home Training) for cognitively impaired older people in improving cognitive and emotional health. Method: A one-group pretest and posttest design was adopted, involving 57 community-dwelling older people with cognitive impairments (Montreal Cognitive Score between 13 and 22, without neuropsychiatric behavioral problem). Trained volunteers performed eight in-home training sessions using a tablet to facilitate. Outcome measures include cognitive function, depression, activity of daily living, and instrumental activity of daily living. Results: A paired sample t test indicated that after receiving Lok Chi In-home Training, participants showed significantly large improvements on cognitive ability, moderate improvements on depression, and small improvements on instrumental activity of daily living. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the feasibility and potential benefits of Lok Chi intervention for improving cognition and emotion.