Personalized Sensory Stimulation: Urban and Rural Dementia Care

This scale is one of the most commonly used tools for assessing mild cognitive impairment and early-stage dementia, evaluating capacities such as executive function, attention, visuospatial abilities, language, memory, and orientation. The scale has a maximum score of 30, with higher scores indicating better cognitive function.

A neuropsychological test used to assess cognitive impairment, particularly in the context of Alzheimer's disease. The ADAS-Cog typically has a total score ranging from 0 to 70, with higher scores indicating greater cognitive impairment.

Through semi-structured interviews with primary caregivers or observers, this scale will be used to assess behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). It consists of 12 items, including depression, anxiety, agitation, hallucinations, delusions, insomnia, behavioral problems, and emotional instability. Each item is scored in two parts: frequency (1 = rarely, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, 4 = very often/almost daily) and severity (1 = mild, 2 = moderate, 3 = severe). The symptom score for each item equals frequency multiplied by severity (ranging from 0 to 12 points). The total score of the scale ranges from 0 to 144, with higher scores indicating more severe symptoms.

This scale assesses the depressive emotional states of older adults through self-administration or interviews, covering dimensions such as motivation for activity participation, social and life satisfaction, energy levels, fatigue, and feelings of sadness or hopelessness. It consists of 15 items, with each item scored 0 or 1 (0 = No, 1 = Yes); higher scores indicate a more severe level of depression.

We will collect subjective assessments from participants and the staff in daycare center across three dimensions: intervention acceptability, system usability, and overall satisfaction. Each dimension will be evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

Using purposive sampling, we will invite willing older adults and care workers with good attendance from each experimental group (anticipating 2 older adults and 2 care workers per group, totaling approximately 16 participants) to conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews. Each interview will last approximately 30 to 60 minutes, and will be audio-recorded with the participants' consent for subsequent transcription. The main topics will include: (1) overall impressions and acceptability of the intervention program; (2) subjective experiences regarding gamma music and technological devices; (3) setting- and resource-related factors; (4) gender- and personal background-related experiences; (5) practical implementation challenges faced by care workers and their coping strategies; and (6) recommendations for future program adjustments and scaling. Qualitative data will be analyzed using thematic analysis with the qualitative analysis software ATLAS.ti.