Bridging the gap between illiterate older adults and cognitive stimulation technologies through pervasive computing

The global ageing of the population has made the increase in age-related diseases more obvious, some of which are accompanied by a patient’s cognitive decline (CD). That is a hard problem for Mexico, as a large number of older adults belong to marginalized sectors. These older adults are characterized by their illiteracy and limited financial resources, which make them more vulnerable to conditions such as the Alzheimer’s disease. According to the literature, a person who participates often in cognitive stimulation (CS) activities reduces the risk of suffering a CD-related condition. This has provided the motivation to carry out case studies to understand older adults’ interactions in CS sessions, and their relation with technologies and with members of their social family networks (SFN). To address these technological, social and illiteracy gaps, a pervasive CS collaborative system has been designed and evaluated which eases interaction through natural interfaces and enables SFN members to interact with older adults during their CS activities regardless of their physical location. The evaluation results provide evidence that participants perceived the system as useful, easy to use and providing a pleasurable user experience. Furthermore, these results show the feasibility of augmenting traditional board games (e.g. chess, checkers) to create pervasive CS collaborative applications and the importance and benefits of integrating SFN members as informal caregivers.