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Purpose of the Study: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a diagnosis proposed to describe an intermediate state between normal cognitive aging and dementia. MCI has been criticised for its conceptual fuzziness, its ambiguous relationship to dementia, and the tension it creates between medical and sociological understandings of "normal aging"., Design and Methods: We examined the published qualitative literature on experiences of being diagnosed and living with MCI using metasynthesis as the methodological framework., Results: Two overarching conceptual themes were developed. The first, MCI and myself-in-time, showed that a diagnosis of MCI could profoundly affect a person's understanding of their place in the world. This impact appears to be mediated by multiple factors including a person's social support networks, which daily activities are affected, and subjective interpretations of the meaning of MCI. The second theme, Living with Ambiguity, describes the difficulties people experienced in making sense of their diagnosis. Uncertainty arose, in part, from lack of clarity and consistency in the information received by people with MCI, including whether they are even told MCI is the diagnosis., Implications: We conclude by suggesting an ethical tension is always at play when a MCI diagnosis is made. Specifically, earlier support and services afforded by a diagnosis may come at the expense of a person's anxiety about the future, with continued uncertainty about how his or her concerns and needs can be addressed., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.)

We evaluated a commercially-available monitoring system for older people with dementia living at home. The system was designed to detect problems before they require crisis intervention. Fourteen clients from two healthcare organisations in the Netherlands used the system over a 9-month period. The formal and informal caregivers were interviewed, project group meetings were observed, nurse diaries were analysed and a cost analysis performed. Clients and informal caregivers reported enhanced feelings of safety and security as a result of having the system installed in the home. The system appeared to reduce the burden of care on the informal caregiver and had the potential to allow people to live at home for longer. There were financial savings for clients staying at home with the technology compared with the costs of staying in a nursing home: for 10 clients living at home for 2 months, the savings were 23,665 euro. The study showed that the monitoring system represents a potentially useful early warning system to detect a situation before it requires emergency intervention.

Aims: To provide insight into the everyday realities facing care aides working in long‐term residential care (LTRC), and how they perceive their role in society. Design: A qualitative ethnographic case study. Methods: Data were collected over. 10 months of fieldwork at one LTRC setting [September 2015 to June 2016] in Western Canada; semi‐structured interviews (70 h) with 31 care aides; and naturalistic observation (170 h). Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: The findings in this work highlight the underpinned ageism of society, the gendered work of body care, and the tension between the need for relational connections – which requires time and economic profit. Four themes were identified, each relating to the lack of training, support, and appreciation care aides felt about their role in LTRC. Conclusion: Care aides remain an unsupported workforce that is essential to the provision of high‐quality care in LTRC. To support the care aide role, suggestions include: (i) regulate and improve care aide training; (ii) strengthen care aides autonomy of their care delivery; and (iii) reduce stigma by increasing awareness of the care aide role. Impact: What problem did the study address? The unsupportive working conditions care aides experience in LTRC and the subsequent poor quality of care often seen delivered in LTRC settings.What were the main findings? Although care aides express strong affection for the residents they care for, they experience insurmountable systemic and institutional barriers preventing them from delivering care.Where and on whom will the research have impact? Care aides, care aide educators, care aide supervisors and managers in LTRC, retirement communities, and home care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Rates of dementia are projected to increase over the coming years as global populations age. Without a treatment to slow the progression of dementia, many health policies are focusing on preventing dementia by slowing the rate of cognitive decline with age. However, it is unclear which lifestyle changes in old age meaningfully reduce the rate of cognitive decline associated with aging. Objectives: Use existing, multi-year longitudinal health data to determine if engagement in a variety of different lifestyle activities can slow the rate of cognitive decline as older adults age. Method: Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging was analyzed using a quasi-experimental, efficient matched-pair design inspired by the clinical trial methodology. Changes in short-term memory scores were assessed over a multi-year interval for groups who undertook one of 11 different lifestyle activities, compared to control groups matched across confounding socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. Results: Two factors, moderate-intensity physical activity and learning activities, resulted in significant positive impact on cognitive function. Conclusion: Our analysis brings cognitive benefit arguments in favor of two lifestyle activities, moderate-intensity physical activity and learning activities, while rejecting other factors advanced by the literature such as vigorous-intensity physical activity. Those findings justify and encourage the development of new lifestyle health programs by health authorities and bring forward the new health system solution, social prescribing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persons with dementia and their care partners have been found to adapt their own technological arrangements using commercially available information and communication technologies (ICTs). Yet, little is known about these processes of technology appropriation and how care practices are impacted. Adopting a relational perspective of care, we longitudinally examined how four family care networks appropriated a new commercial ICT service into their existing technological arrangements and care practices. Cross-case analysis interpreted collaborative appropriation to encompass two interrelated processes of creating and adapting technological practices and negotiating and augmenting care relationships. Four driving forces were also proposed: motivating meanings that actors ascribe to the technology and its use; the learnability of the technology and actors' resourcefulness; the establishment of responsive and cooperative care practices; and the qualities of empathy and shared power in care relationships. The importance of technological literacy, learning, meaningmaking, and the nature and quality of care relationships are discussed. Future work is urged to employ longitudinal and naturalistic approaches, and focus design efforts on promoting synergistic care relationships and care practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of patients suffering from dementia is expected to more than triple by the year 2040, and this represents a major challenge to publicly-funded healthcare systems throughout the world. One of the most effective prevention mechanisms against dementia lies in increasing brain- and cognitive-reserve capacity, which has been found to reduce the behavioral severity of dementia symptoms as neurological degeneration progresses. To date though, most of the factors known to enhance this reserve stem from largely immutable history factors, such as level of education and occupational attainment. Here, we review the potential for basic lifestyle activities, including physical exercise, meditation and musical experience, to contribute to reserve capacity and thus reduce the incidence of dementia in older adults. Relative to other therapies, these activities are low cost, are easily scalable and can be brought to market quickly and easily. Overall, although preliminary evidence is promising at the level of randomized control trials, the state of research on this topic remains underdeveloped. As a result, several important questions remain unanswered, including the amount of training required to receive any cognitive benefit from these activities and the extent to which this benefit continues following cessation. Future research directions are discussed for each lifestyle activity, as well as the potential for these and other lifestyle activities to serve as both a prophylactic and a therapeutic treatment for dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing useful and usable assistive technologies often presents complex (or “wicked”) challenges that require input from multiple disciplines and sectors. Transdisciplinary collaboration can enable holistic understanding of challenges that may lead to innovative, impactful and transformative solutions. This paper presents generalised principles that are intended to foster transdisciplinary assistive technology development. The paper introduces the area of assistive technology design before discussing general aspects of transdisciplinary collaboration followed by an overview of relevant concepts, including approaches, methodologies and frameworks for conducting and evaluating transdisciplinary working and assistive technology design. The principles for transdisciplinary development of assistive technologies are presented and appliedpost hocto the COACH project, an ambient-assisted living technology for guiding completion of activities of daily living by older adults with dementia as an illustrative example. Future work includes the refinement and validation of these principles through their application to real-world transdisciplinary assistive technology projects.Implications for rehabilitationTransdisciplinarity encourages a focus on real world ‘wicked’ problems.A transdisciplinary approach involves transcending disciplinary boundaries and collaborating with interprofessional and community partners (including the technology's intended users) on a shared problem.Transdisciplinarity fosters new ways of thinking about and doing research, development, and implementation, expanding the scope, applicability, and commercial viability of assistive technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While therapeutic interventions involving music have been shown to have benefits for people with dementia, little research has examined the role of music and music-related activities in their everyday lives. This paper presents the results of qualitative research that explored this role in terms of: the meaning and importance of music in everyday life; the benefits derived from participation in music-related activities; and the problems of engaging with music. Data were collected during in-depth interviews with 26 people with dementia and their carers, who lived either in their own homes or in residential care in different parts of England. The paper illustrates the many different ways in which people with dementia experience music. As well as being enjoyed in its own right, music can enable people to participate in activities that are enjoyable and personally meaningful. It is an important source of social cohesion and social contact, sup- ports participation in various activities within and outside the household, and provides a degree of empowerment and control over their everyday situations. The practical implications for the provision of care and support for people with dementia are discussed. The scope and implications for technological development to promote access to music are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a user-led research into the quality of life of people with dementia. The user research outlines priorities for research and development the technologies to enhance the independence and well-being of people with dementia. It describes the development of a music-playing device on the basis of the input from previous user research.

Dementia is conventionally defined in terms of neurological changes in the brain and an inevitable and progressive decline in the individual's cognitive powers and functional ability. However, this 'biomedical' model fails to recognize other important factors within the dementing process, such as the social and care context within which the dementing person lives. It is argued that appropriate care interventions can have a considerable impact on the progress of dementia. Data from an evaluation of three experimental homes for the elderly mentally ill show that some degree of 'rementia', the regaining of lost cognitive and functional abilities, is possible for some individuals. This evidence is used to argue for a more positive approach to dementia care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]