Evaluating the effectiveness of a digital educational game to improve public perception of dementia
| Project Title | Evaluating the effectiveness of a digital educational game to improve public perception of dementia |
| Research Focus |
It is possible to live well with dementia and many people with dementia are living active lives with the support of families, friends and communities. more young people than ever before are experiencing dementia in their family with limited support due to a lack of understanding and/or negative perceptions. more is needed to enable people living with dementia to receive the respect and support they need to continue to live active and healthy lives in the community. Therefore, this project aimed to continue to improve the lives of people with dementia and their family caregivers through a collaborative process of developing an interactive game that challenges people to respect those living with dementia. |
| Funder & Dates | Dementia Services Development Trust: January 2019-January 2020 |
| Principle Investigator or Primary Supervisor (if PhD Student) | Professor Christine Brown Wilson |
| Co-Investigator or additional supervisors |
Dr Gary Mitchell, Dr Gillian Carter |
| Research Fellow(s) or PhD Students | Victoria McTurk |
| Name & Institution of Collaborators | |
| Name of External Partner Organisations |
Dementia NI |
| Description of Project: Aim; Methods; Expected Outcome |
The aim of the project was to develop a digital game to improve public perception about dementia using disruptive co-design. The project was conducted in three phases ensuring people with dementia were central to each phase of the project. Phase1 comprised Focus groups with people living with dementia about facilitators and barriers to living well with dementia. In Phase 2 we co designed the digital game to improve public perception of dementia with seven people living with dementia, two dementia advocates, six nursing students and a representative from Focus Games Ltd. Phase 3 piloted the Game with university students and 457 students completed the pre/post questionnaires. We found that the dementia awareness game improved attitudes to dementia. Our findings were highly statistically significant <0.001. We also examined the data to ascertain if experience of caring for someone living with dementia, or prior dementia training attendance, reduced the impact of our dementia game. Our findings were statistically significant for both these groups <0.001. |
| Add links/URLs to external pages e.g. study webpage, reports, publications etc. |
The game is available: https://www.dementiagame.com Mitchell, G., McTurk, V., Carter, G., and Brown Wilson, C. (2020) Emphasise Capability, Not Disability: Exploring Public Perceptions, Facilitators and Barriers to Living Well with Dementia in Northern Ireland. BMC Geriatrics. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-020-01933-w |