Reminder devices reportedly improve medication adherence in the elderly patients with mild dementia; however, the efficacy of such devices remains unexplored. Therefore, a 3-month before and after study with convenience sampling was conducted to determine the efficacy of a medication reminder device used by 18 participants (aged 81.2 ± 6.2 years) with Clinical Dementia Rating scores of 0.5 or 1. At the onset of device use, examiners visited the users’ homes to ensure that they and their caregivers understood how to use the device. Caregivers monitored its use during the first week. Values of the self-administration medication rate during 1 week for 13 (72.2%) users showed improvement at 3 months. This result revealed that reminder devices can improve medication adherence in the elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment. Further study is needed to assess the magnitude of this improvement and to enhance its support for users with mild cognitive impairment.

Background: The use of robots for providing support to persons with dementia is very promising. However, it is difficult to develop a truly useful robot system because of the difficulty of clarifying their needs and opinions. Objective: Because a field-based method is effective for the development of these kinds of systems, in this study, we developed a prototype of an information support robot for persons with dementia, using field-based methodology. Methods: A communication robot system produced by NEC Corporation, called "PaPeRo", was chosen as the platform for this system. To achieve the goal of keeping persons with dementia informed of their daily schedule and prompting them to take desired actions, interactive verbal communication algorithms were programmed into the robot system. Results: The results of experiments with five dementia sufferers showed that this system produced an information acquisition rate of over 90%. In addition, a life support demonstration showed the possibility of prompting users to perform actions. Conclusions: These results suggest the possibility of using this robot to support independent living by persons with dementia, and also the effectiveness of the field-based method.

A series of experiments related to input operation necessary for using an electronic diary system (button operation, text input, and memory recall) were conducted among 13 persons with dementia (Alzheimer's disease). As a result, decline of cognitive function due to Alzheimer's disease made it difficult to conduct a series of tasks and if the decline was mild, participants were able to conduct the tasks.In addition, in order to examine interface design suitable for persons with mild dementia and cognitive impairment, experiments concerning text input and memory recall was conducted among 20 elder persons. As a result, text input using hiragana keyboard was suitable for people with decline of attentional function. Also, it was suggested from the result that sequential information presentation, in other words limiting information and making instructions concluded in one screen, could promote recall of memory.

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