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Virtual Reality and the Cognitive Screening of Older Adults: A Review

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Information Technology and Systems (ICITS 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 692))

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Abstract

This paper presents a literature review aiming to analyse the state of the art of virtual reality applications to detect age related cognitive impairments of community-dwelling older adults by identifying (i) the paradigms for interaction being used, (ii) the cognitive domains being assessed, and (iii) how the proposed applications were evaluated. A systematic electronic search was performed using Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed databases and 23 studies were included in the review. The paradigm most used for interaction was simulation of daily tasks, while memory, executive functions, and attention were the cognitive domains most referred. For the evaluation of the proposed applications, five articles reported on diagnostic accuracy studies and their results state that applications supported on virtual reality can discriminate between normal cognition and nonnormal cognition. However, these diagnostic accuracy studies not only constitute a small percentage of the included studies, but also, in general, were conducted with a small number of participants.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (COMPETE 2020), Portugal 2020 and Lisboa 2020 of the Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) / European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), under project project SH4ALL – Smart Health for ALL, POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046115.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science and Technology School, UNIDCOM, University ofTrás-Os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

    Rute Bastardo

  2. Science and Technology School, INESC-TEC, University ofTrás-Os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

    João Pavão

  3. Department of Medical Sciences, IBIMED, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Bruno Gago

  4. Department of Medical Sciences, IEETA, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Nelson Pacheco Rocha

Authors
  1. Rute Bastardo
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  2. João Pavão
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  3. Bruno Gago
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  4. Nelson Pacheco Rocha
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ISEG, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. Facultade de Geografía e Historia, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Carlos Ferrás

  3. Departamento de Informática, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Peru

    Waldo Ibarra

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Bastardo, R., Pavão, J., Gago, B., Rocha, N.P. (2023). Virtual Reality and the Cognitive Screening of Older Adults: A Review. In: Rocha, Á., Ferrás, C., Ibarra, W. (eds) Information Technology and Systems. ICITS 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 692. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33261-6_36

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