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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1457923

The Effectiveness of Virtual Passport, an App-based Intervention, for Dementia Care

Provisionally accepted
Qian-Xi Hong Qian-Xi Hong 1Wen-Fu Wang Wen-Fu Wang 1Yuan-Han Yang Yuan-Han Yang 2,3,4Yu-Chun Tung Yu-Chun Tung 5Hong-Jie Dai Hong-Jie Dai 6Wen-Chuin Hsu Wen-Chuin Hsu 7,8Ling Chun Huang Ling Chun Huang 2,3Kai-Ming Jhang Kai-Ming Jhang 1*
  • 1 Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
  • 2 Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  • 3 Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  • 4 School of Medicine for Post-Baccalaureate, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  • 5 Department of Pharmacy, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
  • 6 Department of Electronic Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  • 7 Department of Neurology, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 8 School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study aimed to confirm the effectiveness of the virtual passport for dementia care.The virtual passport is an application (app) tool connecting healthcare professionals, dementia care sites, and people living with dementia (PLWD) and their family caregivers. This tool assists case managers in hospitals by providing individualized care plans and health education to PLWD and their caregivers. The dementia quality indicator achievement rates, care needs investigation and fulfillment, severity of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), and changes in caregiver burden and depression are measured at the initial interview and 6 and 12 months after the intervention.We enrolled 57 and 54 patients and their caregivers in the virtual passport and routine care groups, respectively. Compared to the control group, six quality indicators in the passport group showed significantly higher achievement at 6 months after using the virtual passport. Case managers addressed more care needs at 6 months (1.37 vs 0, p < 0.001) and 12 months (1.32 vs 0, p < 0.001). Improvement in severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms (neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) irritability/lability difference: -0.58 vs 0.22, p = 0.044; NPI agitation/aggression difference =-0.78 vs 0.00, p = 0.042) were also observed. No obvious influence was found in caregiver burden and depression after using the virtual passport.The virtual passport is an effective information technology tool in improving the quality of dementia care, assisting case management in identifying more care needs, and reducing the severity of BPSD.

    Keywords: Dementia, Information Technology, Mobile Applications, Case Management, Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD)

    Received: 03 Jul 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hong, Wang, Yang, Tung, Dai, Hsu, Huang and Jhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kai-Ming Jhang, Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.