Use of digital game therapy among elderly persons undergoing dialytic treatment: cognitive aspects and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Objective

:to evaluate the presence of depressive symptoms and cognitive disorders before and after an intervention program with a digital therapeutic game among elderly persons undergoing hemodialysis.

Method:

a quasi-experimental study was carried out with 26 elderly patients on hemodialysis. For the data collection, a questionnaire relating to sociodemographic and health conditions, the Geriatric Depression Scale - 15 items and Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised were used. The intervention with the digital therapeutic game was performed over 5 sessions.

Results:

of the participants, 80.8% were male, with a mean age of 66.7 (± 5.8) years. The mean pre-intervention depressive symptom score was 3.9 (± 3.0) while post-intervention it was 2.8 (± 2.9), representing a statistically significant difference (p = 0.005). Regarding cognitive function, there was no statistically significant difference before and after the intervention. There was a statistically significant difference in the mean of the depressive symptom scores, which were lower after the intervention. In addition, there was no statistically significant difference in the mean of the cognitive assessments.

Conclusion:

intervention studies with patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment are still scarce and this study describes the positive results of an intervention with a digital therapeutic game, demonstrating improvement in the depressive symptoms of the participants.

Keywords:
Aged; Cognition; Depression; Renal Insufficiency Chronic; Technology