The Development of a Mobile Application for Assessing Dementia and Educating Village Health Volunteers on the Prevention and Caring for Dementia Patients

Abstract

              This research aimed 1) to develop a mobile application for assessing dementia and educating its users on how to prevent dementia and care for dementia patients, and 2) to examine the effect of this mobile application on the knowledge and skill of volunteer health villagers in screening for dementia and caring for dementia patients. The study was conducted between March 2020 and July 2021 in Pathum Thani province, Thailand. The study employed four stages: 1) a situational analysis and needs assessment of the village health volunteers, 2) the design of the content platform and development of the mobile application, 3) trials and a feasibility test of the content of the mobile application, and  4) evaluation of the mobile application. From 78 village health volunteers (39 participants in each group) selected via random sampling. A focus group discussion guideline, the mobile application, a dementia knowledge questionnaire, a dementia assessment skills assessment form, a mobile application satisfaction questionnaire, and a questionnaire on the possibility of using mobile applications were used to collect data. The experimental group received training on the use of mobile applications and practiced dementia screening tests, while the comparison group received routine care. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. To analyze the mobile application’s effectiveness, a paired t - test and an independent t - test were performed. Based on the results of the content from the situation analysis and needs assessment of the village health volunteers, a content platform was designed, and a mobile application was developed for use on the Android operating system; this application could be installed via QR code and the code for the registration could be changed via mobile phone. The suggestions from the trials and feasibility test of the content of mobile application were 1) the date, month, and year were specific auto-answers when an answer was correct, and 2) the font size was increased. The results from the evaluation of the mobile application revealed that 1) the experimental group had a high average satisfaction in using mobile applications (80.15%); and 2) the experimental group had higher knowledge (t = 7.538, p < .001) and skill in screening dementia patients (t = 13.209, p < .001) at the .05 level of significance. This result demonstrated that the villager health volunteers were satisfied in using the mobile application and increased their knowledge and skills in dementia assessment.