Cognition impairment in older adults

Hello everyone! I am Megan Liu. Today I would like to talk about cognitive impairment in older adults. Mainly early stage dementia and how internet of things may be applied. The aging population has grown rapidly worldwide. The Taiwan Alzheimer Disease Association commissioned by Ministry of Health and Wealthfare conducted an epidemiological study. Findings revealed that older adults aged 65 and over accounts to for 12% of the total population in Taiwan including 80% of person with mild cognitive impairment and 8% of person with dementia. In other words, there is 1% with dementia in every 12 older adults who is over the age of 65. Dementia is an illness syndrome, characterized by cognitive and behavioral disturbances.

Memory loss is the main symptom of dementia although other areas of functioning are also affected.

These include: attention, orientation, language, mood, personality, judgment, and visual spatial performance. Dementia progresses at an individual rate, but the first sign is often a gradual decline in memory. Despite memory decline, early stage dementia includes mild impairment in verbal expression, executive functioning, judgement, and physical abilities. Now we’ll see a video of older adults interview.

In the early stages of dementia, person with dementia have the best response to the therapeutic interventions and as a result, many people are living longer with milder symptoms. Person with dementia in the early stages are often able to remain active, but their personal identity may change due to the changes in their memory perceptions and ability. Due to the rapidly growing population of older adults and people affected with dementia, the cost of dementia care and the burden of the family will dramatically increase. Taking some useful strategies in the early stage of dementia may decline cognitive function decline and long term care facility placement.

Researchers around the world are searching for ways to prevent or cure dementia, and with pharmacological therapies offering only modest hope, non-pharmacological therapies that stimulate mental activity have emerged as a more promising therapeutic method. Cognitive training shows promise for improving cognitive abilities or person with dementia in the early stages who are at high risk for continued cognitive decline. Computerized cognitive training and virtual reality cognitive training along with I.o.T. can help assessing and training cognition. Cognitive training usually involves guided practice on a set of standardized tasks involving specific cognitive functioning including memory, attention, or problem solving. Computerized cognitive training can tailor task difficulty based on individual performance level and offer through individual or in groups.

Now we’ll see a video of older adults playing with brain club.

Thank you very much for watching this video.