A Systematic Review of Serious Games Relating to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

 Assessment, diagnosis, and cognitive stimulation of patients with different stages of cognitive impairment, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease, has become a growing area of research. Recently, there has been an increase in interest in applying serious games for older people with neurodegenerative diseases. The present systematic review aims to investigate and classify serious games for detecting cognitive impairment in the elderly. In this review, searches focused on studies conducted between 2014 and 2021, of which twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. In this regard, we identified a few categories for the collective classification of serious games. We chose taxonomy of five classes to classify serious games dedicated to cognitive training and diagnosis among seniors: cognitive skills, objectives, game elements, motivation, and validation. We conclude that gamified techniques prove to be a valuable complement to traditional treatments because of the increased patient engagement.