Facilitating Physical Activities for Elderly with Dementia in Sri Lanka: An HCI-Driven Approach

Dementia, a progressive neurological condition, erodes cognitive function and self-awareness, making individuals increasingly dependent on others. Addressing this challenge, “person-centered care” emerged, where family or trained caregivers assist those with dementia. While previous research hinted at physical therapy's potential in dementia risk reduction, manual therapy imposes a substantial burden on both caregivers and patients. To tackle this, our research revolves around creating a smartphone app that automates and manages physical therapy as part of dementia patients' daily routines. This is achieved through a hybrid machine learning recommendation system. We also conduct a quantitative analysis to gauge the app's assistance level to both dementia patients and caregivers. Insights are gleaned through online surveys and in-person evaluations involving dementia patients, caregivers, and non-demented seniors. This informs the human-computer interaction (HCI) requirements, data collection, and testing phases. It's crucial to note that a controlled user group using the app for a month exhibited a significant improvement (
$> 12{\%}$
) in engagement with physical therapy compared to their pre-app engagement levels. This innovation can potentially alleviate the challenges faced by dementia patients and their caregivers, improving their overall well-being.