Mental well-being is a major factor contributing to the quality of life. Because
of the ageing population, the old-age cognitive deficit is an epidemic-like phenomenon.
Cognitive mental impairment is chronic, progressive, long-lasting and incurable, but
the deterioration could be slowed, and the quality of life could be maintained for
a longer time. Therefore, the assessment of mental well-being and the early detection
of deterioration are very important. Current clinically validated tests have limited
screening capabilities as they have been developed for professional use in controlled
environments, they are expensive and require the presence of medical staff. We aimed
to develop a monitoring measurement methodology that is suitable for regular screening
at the patient's home and can detect significant deterioration in some important cognitive
areas. Our idea was to monitor and analyse the patient’s performance through the analysis
of computer game performance.We developed a system and investigated the estimation
of mental well-being based on voluntary game playing in the last decade. The focus
is on the elderly group showing the early sign of having a higher risk for a pathological
decrease in cognition (called Mild Cognitive Impairment). Since 2014 more than 3000
people were registered in the system and nearly 1.5 million game logs were collected.
Experience has been collected since the first end-users registered, especially feed-backs
were analysed. Several important ideas were gained, and during the past years, we
improved this system in the framework of the iCare4NextG project. The three most important
ones are: a) strengthening the feedback to the participants by giving some explanation
of the suggestions, b) simplifying the user interface and c) reducing the difficulty
level of some games. Therefore, a lifestyle education advisory system is to be added,
to help interpret the results and to give advice about the improvement of mental,
physical, and social lifestyles.Based on the analysis of the experience and the collected
feedback information an online screening application was developed. The screening
application consists of 3 games and 2 questionnaires. The participant is asked to
perform at least 3 sessions in each game, and fill out the questionnaires at least
once. The screening is aimed at the inhabitants of a local municipality. The localized
nature and the involvement of the municipality are very important: based on the performance
of the participant, he/she can be referred to the proper local healthcare institute
(e.g. local social centre, general practitioner etc.). The system is easily portable
to different local environments. This way we turned a primarily reactive healthcare
experience into a proactive one in cooperation with local municipal and healthcare
institutions.Currently, a 6-month screening is running in a district of Budapest focusing
on 65+ years inhabitants. More than 120 participants registered during October and
November 2022, and 534 game logs and 379 questionnaires were collected.Project no.
2019-2.1.1-EUREKA-2020-00014 (iCare4NextG – H ) has been implemented with the support
provided by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary from the National
Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the EUREKA-2020 funding
scheme.
