Digital life storybooks for people with dementia living in care homes: an evaluation

Abstract

Background and aimThere is increasing interest in using information and communication technology to help older adults with dementia to engage in reminiscence work. Now, the feasibility of such approaches is beginning to be established. The purpose of this study was to establish an evidence-base for the acceptability and efficacy of using multimedia digital life storybooks with people with dementia in care homes, in comparison with conventional life storybooks, taking into account the perspectives of people with dementia, their relatives, and care staff.MethodsParticipatory design was used to create a life story movie based on a previously completed conventional life storybook with six older adults with dementia (four females; mean age 82 years). Relatives were involved in helping the participant to provide additional information and materials for the digital life storybook. In this multiple case study design, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. For quantitative purposes, a set of questionnaires that had been completed three times before and after the conventional life storybook was developed were repeated 4 weeks after the life story movie was completed. Semistructured interview questions were designed to collect feedback from participants, relatives, and care staff.ResultsThe result indicated that five of the six participants showed additional improvement in measures of quality of life and autobiographical memory. All participants showed improvement or stability in depression scores. Thematic analysis showed that, participants, relatives, and care home staff viewed digital life storybooks as a very useful tool triggering memories and (largely) positive emotions. Participants’ case vignettes were presented to document the impact of digital life storybook.

Life story books for people with dementia: a systematic review

“…(3) ways to incorporate difficult life events into the life story book; and (4) complex dynamics of hierarchy in the relationship between older couples and the interventionist Subramaniam and Woods (2016) Quantitative: Quality of life-Alzheimer's disease scale (QOL-AD); autobiographical memory interview extended version (AMI-E; subscales PSS and AIS); Geriatric Depression Scale Residential (GDS-12R); quality of the caregiving relationship questionnaire (QCPR). Qualitative: Open-ended questions.…”

“…In three studies, both a traditional and another type of LSB was formed, namely a digital book (Ingersoll-Dayton et al, 2016), a rummage box (Crook et al, 2016), and a pen picture (McKeown et al, 2013). In three studies, only a digital version was created: both studies by Hashim et al (2013; worked with a digital application and the study of Subramaniam and Woods (2016) used previously constructed tangible LSBs as input to create a digital life story movie. A wide variation of materials was used to create the LSBs: photographs, music, narration, stories, blank pages, quotations, and news items.…”

How and how well have older people been engaged in healthcare intervention design, development or delivery using co‐methodologies: A scoping review with narrative summary

“…The most frequently reported type of engagement was through variously described communication such as interviews, focus groups, facilitated discussions, community consultation and workshops. Some older people worked practically alongside researchers to design and/or test 'products' for example a re-ablement system (Bond et al, 2015), a peer-education guide (Clarke et al, 2009), development of a home based dizziness intervention (Grönvall & Kyng, 2013) and a digital life-story book (Subramaniam & Woods, 2016).…”

Fostering the Resilience of People With Dementia: A Narrative Literature Review

“…This review also found that although supporting resilience was beneficial to people with dementia, only a limited number of interventions have been developed and these have been assessed predominantly with people in early dementia in community settings who are currently "doing okay." Future research should focus on interventions that have the potential to support resilience through facilitating communication opportunities for people with more advanced dementia to interact with other people (58,71,72). Indeed, touchscreen technology has been found to enhance personhood of people with dementia (73) and robotic technologies can positively impact quality of life (74,75) and improve mood (76).…”