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. 2022 Mar;41(3):867-880.
doi: 10.1177/07334648211015456. Epub 2021 May 19.

Digital Storytelling in Older Adults With Typical Aging, and With Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia: A Systematic Literature Review

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Digital Storytelling in Older Adults With Typical Aging, and With Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia: A Systematic Literature Review

Adriana Maria Rios Rincon et al. J Appl Gerontol. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

The rates of dementia are on the rise as populations age. Storytelling is commonly used in therapies for persons living with dementia and can be in the form of life review, and reminiscence therapy. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine the range and extent of the use of digital technologies for facilitating storytelling in older adults and their care partners, and to identify the processes and methods, the technologies used and their readiness levels, the evidence, and the associated outcomes. Eight electronic databases were searched: Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Abstracts in Social Gerontology, ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus. We included 34 studies. Mild cognitive impairment or dementia represented over half of medical conditions reported in the studies. Overall, our findings indicate that the most common use of digital storytelling was to support older adults' memory, reminiscence, identity, and self-confidence; however, the level of evidence of its effectiveness was low.

Keywords: digital storytelling; older adults; review; technology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Scholarly literature search results.

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