Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2023 Dec;55(1):1080-1091.
doi: 10.1080/07853890.2023.2185672.

A digital health home intervention for people within the Alzheimer's disease continuum: results from the Ability-TelerehABILITation pilot randomized controlled trial

Federica Rossetto  1 , Sara Isernia  1 , Olivia Realdon  2 , Francesca Borgnis  1 , Valeria Blasi  1 , Chiara Pagliari  1 , Monia Cabinio  1 , Margherita Alberoni  1 , Fabrizia Mantovani  2 , Mario Clerici  1   3 , Francesca Baglio  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

A digital health home intervention for people within the Alzheimer's disease continuum: results from the Ability-TelerehABILITation pilot randomized controlled trial

Federica Rossetto et al. Ann Med. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: This study tested the efficacy of digital-health home intervention for people within the Alzheimer's disease (AD)-continuum.

Methods: Thirty people within the AD continuum were randomly assigned to a telerehabilitation (ABILITY; 6 males, Mage=78.2 ± 3.95) or treatment as usual (TAU; 8 males, Mage=77.13 ± 6.38), performing cognitive and physical activities at home for six weeks. The ABILITY intervention additionally included a digital platform enabling communication between the hospital and the patient's home. Efficiency, such as adherence, perceived fit of demands and skills, usability, and effectiveness measures, including neuropsychological level, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and autonomy in daily living, were collected before (T0), after the treatment (T1), and at the 1-year-follow-up (T2).

Results: The ABILITY program was efficient, with a higher adherence (81% vs. 62%), a higher perceived fit of demands and skills than TAU (p<.05), and a good level of technology usability. In terms of effectiveness, a treatment effect (ABILITY > TAU) emerged on the global cognitive level, especially in language, executive functions, and memory domains. Moreover, a treatment carry-over effect (1-year follow-up) was observed in global cognitive functions (especially language) (ABILITY > TAU), behavioral symptoms, and caregiver distress (TAU > ABILITY).

Conclusions: Our preliminary findings suggest that ABILITY is a promising eHealth intervention to improve at-home treatment adherence and to preserve cognitive and behavioral abilities.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Disability; Mild Cognitive Impairment; Rehabilitation; Telerehabilitation.

Plain language summary

People in the Alzheimer’s Disease continuum facing chronic cognitive disabilities represent an emergency for the healthcare system given the substantial need for long-term rehabilitation;This study evaluates a new model of rehabilitation in the continuity of care for people with cognitive disabilities, adopting an asynchronous approach;The asynchronous telerehabilitation model may be considered a new frontier for continuity of care, capable of answering the unmet need of scaling up rehabilitation services to the broad population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
CONSORT diagram of the study.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The ABILITY telerehabilitation system: architecture and functionality. DHC: Digital Health Contents for rehabilitation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization . Global action plan on the public health response to dementia 2017–2025. 2017; Geneva, Switzerland.
    1. Fillit H, Green A.. Aducanumab and the FDA - where are we now? Nat Rev Neurol. 2021;17(3):129–130. - PubMed
    1. Rai H, Yates L, Orrell M.. Cognitive stimulation therapy for dementia. Clin Geriatr Med. 2018;34(4):653–665. - PubMed
    1. Baglio F, Griffanti L, Saibene FL, et al. . Multistimulation group therapy in alzheimer’s disease promotes changes in brain functioning. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2015;29(1):13–24. - PubMed
    1. Manenti R, Gobbi E, Baglio F, et al. . Effectiveness of an innovative cognitive treatment and telerehabilitation on subjects with mild cognitive impairment: a multicenter, randomized, Active-Controlled study. Front Aging Neurosci. 2020;12:585988. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types