A Serious Game Prototype of Combined Cognitive Training for Alzheimer's Patients

Xiao Yang, Muran Tang, Gary Ushaw

Abstract: Population ageing has become a global trend and challenge around the world in the 21st century. With the growth of elderly population, the number of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients also increases annually, because age increasing is identified as the critical factor of AD’s prevalence. So, caring, intervention, and treatment of AD patients have become an important topic for public health. The current trials have proven the positive effect of combined cognitive training in intervening cognitive decline. However, the cost of the combined training leads to the fact that it is unaffordable for patients and their families. Therefore, we developed a 2D Android serious game prototype for AD patients’ daily home-based cognitive training to ensure both the effectiveness of combined training and affordable training costs. The game prototype contains 3 daily-scenario-based scenes and features based on user-centered-design (UCD). The evaluation results indicate that this project qualifies as an appropriate serious game for AD.