Detection of activity limitations in older adults with MCI or Alzheimer's disease through evaluation of perceived difficulty in use of everyday technology: A replication study

Abstract

Objectives and methods: Earlier research indicates that the ability to use everyday technology (ET) may be sensitive to subtle functional change. People with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have been identified as significantly more disabled in ET use compared to controls, albeit less disabled than people with dementia. The aim of this study was to investigate the replicability of these findings using an improved version of the Everyday Technology Use Questionnaire (ETUQ) to compare perceptions of relevance and difficulty in ET use in participants with MCI or Alzheimer's disease (AD) and controls. Additional aims were to explore the validity of ETUQ, and the relationships between perceived difficulty in ET use and cognitive status, mood state, and involvement in everyday life activities. In total, 118 participants were included, 37 with AD, 37 with MCI, and 44 controls.

Results: Analyses confirmed that the rating scale of the ETUQ functioned well. The three groups overlapped but differed significantly in their perceptions of ETs relevance (p < 0.05) as well as of difficulties in ET use (p < 0.001). Moderate correlations were also found between ETUQ measures and cognitive status, mood, and involvement in activities, the strongest being that between ETUQ measures and involvement in activities (r = 0.563).

Conclusion: Taken together, the findings underscore the plausibility of disability already in people with MCI, as the use of ET strongly correlates to involvement in activities. It is therefore important that professionals who meet older adults with cognitive impairment take this aspect of function into account in assessments and targeted interventions.

Keywords:

• ADL/IADL
• assessment
• complex activities
• concurrent validity
• dementia

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, the authors thank the respondents for participating in the study. The authors also thank occupational therapists Cecilia Toding and Sofia Starkhammar, who took part in the data gathering. The research was financially supported by Swedish Brainpower, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) and Stockholm County Council through the agreement on medical training and clinical research (ALF) between Stockholm County Council and Karolinska Institutet.