Serious games for ageing: a pilot interventional study in a cohort of heterogeneous cognitive impairment

With the increase of life expectancy, the number of elderly people in our society has increased in the last decades, as well as the associated health problems. Ageing is usually associated with cognitive decay and, in several cases, mild cognitive impairment or dementia. For those cases, cognitive training has an important role in the preservation of cognitive skills and consequently, in independent living. In this sense, there is a need for solutions to train cognitively elderly individuals and, at the same time, provide a monitorization of their progress and performance.In this study we developed a group of serious games for cognitive training in ageing. We conducted an interventional study to test the acceptability and feasibility of using those technologies in a population of heterogeneous cognitive impairment and dementia. Our results suggest a reduction in the depressive symptoms reported by the users, as well as some improvements in attentional and executive function indicators. We verify an improvement in the game performances both across and within sessions.