Background: The older population of Europe is increasing and there has been a corresponding increase in long term care costs. This project sought to promote active ageing by delivering tasks via a tablet computer to participants aged 65-80 with mild cognitive impairment.
Objectives: An age-appropriate gamified environment was developed and adherence to this solution was assessed through an intervention.
Methods: The gamified environment was developed through focus groups. Mixed methods were used in the intervention with the time spent engaging with applications recorded supplemented by participant interviews to gauge adherence. There were two groups of participants: one living in a retirement village and the other living separately across a city.
Results: The retirement village participants engaged in more than three times the number of game sessions compared to the other group possibly because of different social arrangements between the groups.
Conclusion: A gamified environment can help older people engage in computer-based applications. However, social community factors influence adherence in a longer term intervention.
Keywords: Psychology; aging; eHealth; mobile application.