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P2‐234: Do older adults support enrolling noncompetent patients with Alzheimer's disease in nonbeneficial research?
Author(s) -
Karlawish Jason,
Rubright Jonathan,
Casarett David,
Cary Mark,
TenHave Thomas,
Sankar Pamela
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2008.05.1309
Subject(s) - proxy (statistics) , disease , medicine , informed consent , alzheimer's disease , lumbar puncture , family medicine , gerontology , psychology , pathology , alternative medicine , cerebrospinal fluid , machine learning , computer science
and its application to product design has not received much attention. In order to assist this population, design engineers need to know what features will help or hinder this growing user group. Methods: The objective of this research is to determine what impact familiarity has on the use of a product by cognitively impaired older adults. This study examines water faucet use, as it is a tool that is necessary for several self-care activities. Five faucets were examined during the handwashing task: crosshead, dual lever, single lever, electronic, and a specially designed faucet for people with dementia. Twleve older adults (mean age 80.5 years) participated in the study and had either no (n 4), mild (n 4) or moderate (n 4) cognitive impairment. Subjects washed their hands with each faucet type (presented randomly) for 10 consecutive days, resulting in 50 trials per subject. A within-subjects design was used to collect usability data, which was reflected through measurements, such as speed, errors committed, learning time, effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. Results: While data analysis is currently underway, initial results have shown some surprising findings. For example, it was observed that participants with mild and moderate cognitive impairments were able to learn how to use the electronic faucet even though it was not familiar to them. In fact, when measured against aspects such as actuator position, operation action, and number of errors made, the electronic faucet consistently ranked higher than the traditional cross head design. Conclusions: Our initial observations indicate that while familiarity may be an important factor in the design of products for older adults, efficiency and ease of use may be of equal or greater importance than whether the product itself is familiar to the user. We will present more definitive conclusions and recommendations upon final analysis of our data.