Harnessing music and reminiscence approaches to personalize serious games for people with dementia: a randomized controlled trial

Current dementia treatments have limitations, leading to a need for complementary approaches for people with dementia. Non-pharmaceutical approaches, like serious games using music and reminiscence-based activities, have been demonstrated to improve health-related domains such as cognition, anxious and depressive symptomatology, functionality, and quality of life. The field of serious games for people with dementia (PwD) has become a very active research area. Nevertheless, a notable portion of these endeavors lacks a robust theoretical basis. Based on the best-established guidelines for personalizing game content, using musical elements, and reminiscence therapy, we have designed a serious game for PwD – SAUDÆDE, emphasizing a person-centered care framework incorporating co-creation and customization of CS programs with and for PwD using personal and meaningful content. Here, we present data on a longitudinal randomized controlled trial where we assess the impact of SAUDÆDE on cognition, mood, functionality, and quality of life in a sample of PwD. Seven PwD went through an intervention of 12 sessions with SAUDÆDE and performed a pre- and post-neuropsychological assessment. Descriptive data analysis of the outcome measures revealed that the experimental group had an increase in general cognition and functionality. Comparatively, the control group had a reduction in functionality and general cognition and a discrete improvement in attention. Additionally, through lessons learned, we aim to provide guidelines for developing personalized game content based on musical preferences, biographical information, photos from the self and family.