Attention Improvement In Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients Using A Multi-Platform Application

Abstract

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a prevalent condition among aging individuals and is associated with cognitive decline. MCI sufferers may deal with lowered attention abilities, which has a big impact on their daily functioning and quality of life. This thesis suggests creating a multi-platform application that is specifically made to increase the focus and attention span of people who have been diagnosed with MCI. Due to the fact senior persons make up a majority of MCI sufferers, this application is designed especially suited to older users. A mixed-methods research approach has been used to accomplish the goals, especially making use of prior research on the effect of cognitive games on MCI patients’ concentration. Before being included in the design of this application, the game type, difficulty through each level, image resources, and user interface have been calculated and studied carefully to make sure that the application can be an effective method to improve the player’s capacity of concentration. The purpose of this study is to develop an attention-boosting, cross-platform application that can help the target population’s attention impairments. The application also contains other features such as ranking, objective, and daily tracking in order to maintain the longterm usage of the users so that they can get positive effects of the games. Besides, the app is designed specifically suited to the requirements and cultural preferences of the senior population, which is the majority of MCI patients. The app, however, can be used widely in other user groups as well. Furthermore, a website designed for medical professionals has been created to help them monitor the development of attention deficit disorder by providing an illustration of the patient’s performance over a particular time frame. Using the website, medical professionals can also gather player data, including score and reaction time, to impartially assess the game’s capacity to enhance focus and establish a reliable database for future MCI study. To realize this project, Flutter framework using Dart programming language has been used to thoroughly construct both the front-end of the user application and the doctor’s monitoring website. On the back-end side, Java and the Spring Boot framework were utilized to store, process, and export data through APIs for the share of usage of both monitoring website and application. Many dependencies have also been used on the front-end and back-end to enable some cross-cutting functionality (including security, connection), and the delivery of SMS and notifications. In the end, the project was completed by publishing the application to the iOS App Store and Android CHPlay, hosting the complete website and back-end on a Linux server, and setting up the system to begin collecting data. The results of this study will create another approach to cognitive therapies for those with MCI. The findings will shed important light on the viability and efficacy of a mobile app as an intervention tool to enhance attention and focus span in MCI sufferers. Additionally, this research will contribute to closing the current gap in the creation of technological solutions for elderly people with cognitive impairments that are acceptable for their cultural context.