A Social Engaging Restorative Virtual Environment (SERVE) Volunteer Intervention to Support Social Engagement and Well-Being in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment

项目摘要 随着年龄的增长，认知和日常功能的年龄相关下降，一个更大的 患病倾向，以及轻度认知障碍(MCI)和阿尔茨海默氏症等疾病的发病 疾病相关性痴呆(ADRD)。患有MCI的人患痴呆症的风险很高，因此 需要干预措施来改善或维持目前的功能水平或延缓进一步的认知下降，因为 以及改善MCI患者的生活质量。基于VR的方法具有便携性、适应性和 性价比高，与门诊治疗相比，提供了更好的途径。除了演示之外 有效性，干预研究的另一个重要目标是发展对“如何以及为什么”的理解。 干预奏效了。对基本原则或行动机制的了解不足 干预措施阻碍了执行。因此，拟议工作的目标是生成和测试VR- 在改善老年MCI患者幸福感和生活质量的同时进行有基础的干预 理清干预行动的假想作用机制和干预成功的调节因素。这 Project具有很高的创新性，因为它使用了基于VR的交付方法，并利用了老年人的人力资本 寻求志愿者体验以参与有意义的社交和认知活动的个人 老年MCI患者为干预伙伴。志愿者的加入也将提供有意义的 为志愿者提供经验，增强干预的可扩展性。第一阶段的活动 行为干预项目将包括生成新的VR干预(通过改进 随着新模块的创建，我们已经开发了VR模块)，开发 培训社区干预者(老年志愿者)的教学材料，以及 干预效果。干预开发将应用以用户为中心的迭代设计方法 生成并评估具有社交吸引力的恢复性虚拟环境(SERVER)，它将提供更老的 患有MCI的成年人有机会通过各种社交和认知活动进行社交 在自己家里开展协作活动。干预将使MCI患者与非受损患者配对 年长的成年志愿者。MCI参与者和志愿者将在共享的虚拟空间内进行远程交互 在共享活动中高效地参与和协作。我们假设，基于实证研究和 老龄化的理论模型，这将增加老年人的感知社会支持 患有MCI的参与者，感知到的社会支持的增加将减少孤独，改善幸福感， 并提高生活质量。我们的试点数据和越来越多的研究文献表明，人们认为 虚拟现实环境中的空间呈现将是干预成功的重要调节因素。

Project Summary With increasing age comes age-associated declines in cognitive and everyday functioning, a greater propensity for illness, and the onset of disorders such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (ADRD). People with MCI are at a high risk for developing dementia and thus interventions are needed to improve or maintain current levels of function or delay further cognitive decline, as well as to improve the quality of life among those with MCI. VR-based approaches are portable, adaptable, and cost-effective, which offers enhanced access compared to outpatient treatments. In addition to demonstrating efficacy, another crucial goal of intervention research is developing an understanding of “how and why” interventions work. Insufficient understanding of the underlying principles or the mechanisms of action of interventions impedes implementation. As such, the goal of the proposed work is to generate and test a VR- based intervention to improve the wellbeing and quality of life of older adults with MCI while simultaneously untangling the intervention’s hypothesized mechanisms of action and moderators of intervention success. This project is highly innovative as it is using a VR-based delivery method and harnesses the human capital of older individuals seeking volunteer experiences to engage in meaningful social and cognitive engagement with other older adults with MCI as intervention partners. The inclusion of volunteers will also provide meaningful experiences for the volunteers and enhance the scalability of the intervention. The activities of this Stage I behavioral intervention project will include the generation of a new VR intervention (through the refinement of VR modules that we have already developed along with the creation of new modules), the development of instructional materials to train community interventionists (older adult volunteers), and the preliminary testing of intervention efficacy. The intervention development will apply a user-centered iterative design approach to generate and evaluate the Social Engaging Restorative Virtual Environment (SERVE), which will provide older adults with MCI an opportunity for social interaction through a variety of social and cognitively engaging collaborative activities within their own homes. The intervention will pair MCI individuals with non-impaired older adult volunteers. MCI participants and volunteers will interact remotely within a shared virtual space and productively engage and collaborate in shared activities. We hypothesize, based on empirical research and theoretical models of aging, that SERVE will increase perceived social support among the older adult participants with MCI, and that increases in perceived social support will reduce loneliness, improve wellbeing, and enhance quality of life. Our pilot data and a growing body of research literature suggest that perceived spatial presence within the VR environment will be an important moderator of intervention success.