Preliminary validation study of the Mindset4Dementia application: assessing remote collection of dementia risk factors and cognitive performance

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. INTRODUCTION 115.4 million individuals are projected to live with dementia by 2050. Notably, there is consensus that a substantial proportion of dementia cases may be preventable. Therefore, identifying individuals exhibiting cognitive impairment in conjunction with dementia risk factors could improve intervention and reduce disease burden. Existing smartphonebased assessment tools have demonstrated validity in cognitive screening, however, none combine cognitive screening with risk factor assessment and few have the accessible design necessary for unsupervised use at home. 5 Mindset4Dementia is a new smartphonebased application seeking to address this gap by integrating both cognitive screening and risk factor identification. The application can be completed unsupervised at home and takes only 5 min to complete. The user is guided through a conversational interface where risk factors are identified and cognitive screening is assessed via a modified Stroop and Symbol digit modality test. 7 Poor performance on the Stroop and Symbol Digit Modalities (SMT) tests is linked with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Studies suggest that Stroop (among other tests) is able to distinguish between patients with dementia and normal controls. 9 The SMT is well suited for distinguishing between people with either MCI and dementia versus normal ageing and also useful in other conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis as a measure of cognition. Currently the app acts solely as a datacollection tool, without giving users feedback on their risk factors or reporting cognitive status. However, the eventual aim is to screen individuals at risk for dementia for apt intervention and prevention. This aim will require several phases including validating the modified Summary box