Digital Memory NotebookEvaluating a Digital Memory Notebook App to Improve Functional Independence

This study will investigate the efficacy of a smart home / digital memory notebook (DMN) partnership that will allow for real-time intervention and thereby facilitate acquisition and use of the DMN to support everyday independence. The DMN is an app that is installed on a mobile tablet. The smart home technology discovers and recognizes generalizable activities and provides information about functional status and health-related variables for older adult participants. This study will examine how smart home prompts affect individuals' DMN use, ability to maintain activity routines, and overall wellbeing. Prompts will center on helping users organize and schedule daily activities, record both routine and uncommon events that may need to be remembered, and record activities performed and important associated event information (e.g., when, what, where). Prompting will help to promote everyday functional independence by encouraging frequent and regular notebook use and reducing memory difficulties. The DMN will also help to support functional independence by notifying individuals about appointments or prompting individuals to initiate important activities of daily living (e.g., take medications).

This study will also involve a machine learning technique to gain a better understanding of the contexts in which individuals adhere or do not adhere to the prompts. This activity-aware intervention will be deployed in the homes of older adults with memory difficulties, to assess the usability of the technology as well as to evaluate in a naturalistic setting the efficacy of the technology for increasing everyday functional independence and quality of life and decreasing care-partner burden. This contribution is significant because it will demonstrate that intelligent technologies can improve the efficacy of traditional memory rehabilitation techniques, extend functional independence, reduce caregiver burden, and improve quality of life.