Towards the development of a tablet-based screening for cognitive symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders

Abstract

Tablet-based screenings have been shown to enhance diagnostics of symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer's or Parkinsons by providing more diagnostic data through digital media in addition to conventional paper-and-pencil tests. However, user acceptance/experience with older patients have not been systematically researched in this context. We present the design and evaluation of a tablet-based prototype of a neuropsychiatric screening of cognitive symptoms. After developing two layouts, one identical to the original pencil-and-paper test (TI), one optimized for tablets (TO), the tablet-based versions were compared with the original version in a user test (n = 20). Results showed user acceptance/experience to be positive for all versions and TO favored over the other versions. Test-retest reliability was maintained in the tablet-based versions and differences in digitizer features between healthy and cognitively impaired participants were explored.