Ioannis Paliokas1, Elias Kalamaras2, Konstantinos Votis2, Stefanos Doumpoulakis2, Eftychia Lakka2, Marina Kotsani3, Anne Freminet3, Athanase Benetos3, Ioannis Ellul4, Marina Polycarpou5, Stelios Zygouris6,7, Vasileios Megalooikonomou8, Dimitrios Tzovaras2. 1. Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Information Technologies Institute, Thessaloniki, Greece. ipaliokas@iti.gr. 2. Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Information Technologies Institute, Thessaloniki, Greece. 3. French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Nancy, France. 4. University of Patras, Department of Neurology, Rio, Greece. 5. Age Care Cyprus Ltd (MATERIA GROUP), Nicosia, Cyprus. 6. 1st Department of Neurology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece. 7. Network Aging Research, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. 8. University of Patras, Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, Rio, Greece.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The comparison of cognitive performance of older adults with frailty and non-frail ones (according to Fried's criteria) was investigated. METHODS/ DESIGN: The differences in performance between people with frailty and individuals without frailty according to Fried were tested using a Virtual Reality (VR) application. The Fried criteria for frailty were used to categorize users into study groups, while standardized batteries were used for a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, including Activities of Daily Living (ADL), lifestyle, cognition, and depression screening. A group of 80 elders (78.08 years old in average) played the VR game entitled Virtual Supermarket (VSM). From those, 39 were healthy controls and 30 were categorized as pre-frail and 11 as frail. The VSM application presented users with a virtual shopping experience where users had to locate and purchase items displayed in a shopping list. This application was designed to test player's ability to reproduce a typical customer behavior in a simulated environment which requires spatial orientation, short-term memory, selective attention, and cognition speed. The performance, duration, and error rate were used as measurements. RESULTS: The analysis showed that there was a statistically significant difference in game performance between the different user groups with X2 (2) = 9.929, p = 0.007. Moreover, the multinomial logistic regression model generated, which based on game performance metrics, was found to be statistically significant with X2 (4) = 15.662, p = 0.004. CONCLUSIONS: Results shed more light toward the possible use of VR for distant self-administered evaluation of the frail status.
OBJECTIVES: The comparison of cognitive performance of older adults with frailty and non-frail ones (according to Fried's criteria) was investigated. METHODS/ DESIGN: The differences in performance between people with frailty and individuals without frailty according to Fried were tested using a Virtual Reality (VR) application. The Fried criteria for frailty were used to categorize users into study groups, while standardized batteries were used for a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, including Activities of Daily Living (ADL), lifestyle, cognition, and depression screening. A group of 80 elders (78.08 years old in average) played the VR game entitled Virtual Supermarket (VSM). From those, 39 were healthy controls and 30 were categorized as pre-frail and 11 as frail. The VSM application presented users with a virtual shopping experience where users had to locate and purchase items displayed in a shopping list. This application was designed to test player's ability to reproduce a typical customer behavior in a simulated environment which requires spatial orientation, short-term memory, selective attention, and cognition speed. The performance, duration, and error rate were used as measurements. RESULTS: The analysis showed that there was a statistically significant difference in game performance between the different user groups with X2 (2) = 9.929, p = 0.007. Moreover, the multinomial logistic regression model generated, which based on game performance metrics, was found to be statistically significant with X2 (4) = 15.662, p = 0.004. CONCLUSIONS: Results shed more light toward the possible use of VR for distant self-administered evaluation of the frail status.
Authors: Stefan J Teipel; Chimezie O Amaefule; Stefan Lüdtke; Doreen Görß; Sofia Faraza; Sven Bruhn; Thomas Kirste Journal: Front Psychol Date: 2022-04-25