Objective: To date, little is known about the impact of cognitive impairment on the performance of real world functional tasks. Most of the research that has been conducted has involved standardized tests. Therefore, it is hard to generalize the findings to complex real world activities. The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the ability of elderly individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who live in the community to perform everyday tasks. Given that technology is increasingly being used in the performance of everyday activities, the focus is on tasks that involve the use of technology.
Design: 120 community dwelling adults aged 55+ are being recruited for participation. The sample includes 40 persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 40 subjects with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and 40 normal controls.
Materials and Methods: Subjects complete an initial telephone screening interview that includes the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire and the Wechsler Memory Scale-III. If they meet study criteria and consent to participate, they participate in an interview along with an informant. The Clinical Dementia Rating and the Functional Activities Questionnaire are administered as well as the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test and the Controlled Word Association. They then complete a battery of cognitive ability measures. Following this, they complete a sample of real world tasks. The tasks involve interacting with a simulated telephone menu system for a utility company application, conducting financial transactions using an automatic teller machine and retrieving information previously recorded in an answering machine. The data collected includes real-time measures of performance, subjective measures of usability and system design features. Performance measures include number and types of errors and response times.
Results: Data comparing task performance among the 3 groups indicate differences among the 3 groups in task performance with the Alzheimer’s disease group exhibiting greater performance difficulties than the other 2 groups and the MCI group exhibiting more difficulties than the normal controls. The data also indicate that component cognitive abilities are linked to task performance.
Conclusion: Individuals with MCI encounter difficulties when performing everyday technology-based tasks. Furthermore, cognitive abilities are important predictors of real world task performance. These findings will be discussed in terms of the development of strategies that may be effective in maintaining the ability of older people with MCI and early AD to live independently in the community.
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