Toward an artificial cognitive model to assist caregivers in decision-making for persons living with dementia
Data
2022-02-22
Autores
Ferreira, Wellington Pacheco 
Orientadores
Lima Junior, Walter Teixeira
Tipo
Dissertação de mestrado
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Resumo
A demência é um termo usado para descrever um grupo de alterações
neurodegenerativas, ela tem impactado pessoas em todo o mundo e a doença mais
comum deste grupo é Alzheimer (DA), que é responsável de dois terços a três quartos de
todos os casos. A progressão causa sintomas como perda de memória recente e das
funções cognitivas o que cria desafios para as pessoas que vivem com a demência para
realizar tarefas cotidianas as tornando dependentes de cuidadores. Devido a fatores
sociais e econômicos, os cuidadores podem ser profissionais ou informais sendo algumas
vezes pertencentes à família da pessoa portadora. Os estudos sugerem que o ato de
cuidar de uma pessoa com doença neurodegenerativa é um fator estressante e produz
cansaço físico, mental e emocional. Com o passar do tempo, a repetição das tarefas
associada a diversas situações pode resultar em excesso de trabalho e gerar má qualidade
de vida. O objetivo deste trabalho é sugerir um modelo de sistema cognitivo artificial para
assistir os cuidadores de forma personalizada através de um agente para a tomada de
decisão do cuidador informal. A metodologia aplicada foi revisão sistemática (SR) e Design
Science Research (DSR). A SR indicou que a maior parte dos resultados foi publicada por
países europeus (58%) e norte-americanos (26%). Também notamos um número
crescente de resultados nos últimos anos, concluímos que os recentes avanços da
inteligência artificial e das redes neurais têm impulsionado o uso de tecnologia para a
saúde em trabalhos acadêmicos. Embora haja um aumento aparente no número de
estudos, há uma ausência de tentativa de aplicação de uma arquitetura cognitiva artificial
no cuidado de síndromes demenciais, o que corrobora com a crença de que esta ainda é
uma tecnologia de ponta e que este trabalho está em uma nova área interdisciplinar, pois
não encontramos resultados semelhantes na SR. Nossa prova de conceito lidou com os
dados do paciente para fornecer informações de fontes confiáveis, como a associação de
Alzheimer à tomada de decisão do cuidador não profissional, independentemente do
estágio do paciente. No entanto, está em estado incipiente de desenvolvimento e requer
mais pesquisas para aplicação em cenários reais.
Dementia is a term used to describe a collection of neurodegenerative disorders that impact people across the world. The most common neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer, which accounted for two-thirds to three-fourths of all cases. The symptoms of the disease progression includes recent memory loss and impairment of cognitive functions that create challenges to individuals living with dementia performing daily tasks, making them dependent on caregivers. Due to social and economic matters, caregivers can be either professional or informal, and in some cases, they are members of the patient’s family. Investigations suggest that caring for individuals living with neurodegenerative disease is stressful physically, mentally, and emotionally. The task repetition associated with other situations might result in overload or bad life quality. This study aims to suggest a model of an artificial cognitive system to assist caregivers in dementia care. In addition, this model assists through an agent personalized support to the decision-making of informal caregivers. The methodology applied was systematic review (SR) to gather information and design science research (DSR) to develop the experiment. The SR indicated a major part of results was published by European (58%) and North American (26%) countries. We also noticed an increasing number of results in recent years, we concluded that the recent advancements of artificial intelligence and neural networks have raised technology for healthcare in academic works. Although there is an apparent increase in the number of studies, there is an absence of tentative to application of an artificial cognitive architecture in dementia care, which corroborates with the belief that this is still a cutting-edge technology and this study has a novel interdisciplinary area. Our proof-of-concept handled the data of the patient to provide information from reliable sources, such as Alzheimer’s association, to non-professional caregiver’s decision-making regardless of the disease stage. However, it is in a nascent state of development and requires further research to be applied in real scenarios.
Dementia is a term used to describe a collection of neurodegenerative disorders that impact people across the world. The most common neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer, which accounted for two-thirds to three-fourths of all cases. The symptoms of the disease progression includes recent memory loss and impairment of cognitive functions that create challenges to individuals living with dementia performing daily tasks, making them dependent on caregivers. Due to social and economic matters, caregivers can be either professional or informal, and in some cases, they are members of the patient’s family. Investigations suggest that caring for individuals living with neurodegenerative disease is stressful physically, mentally, and emotionally. The task repetition associated with other situations might result in overload or bad life quality. This study aims to suggest a model of an artificial cognitive system to assist caregivers in dementia care. In addition, this model assists through an agent personalized support to the decision-making of informal caregivers. The methodology applied was systematic review (SR) to gather information and design science research (DSR) to develop the experiment. The SR indicated a major part of results was published by European (58%) and North American (26%) countries. We also noticed an increasing number of results in recent years, we concluded that the recent advancements of artificial intelligence and neural networks have raised technology for healthcare in academic works. Although there is an apparent increase in the number of studies, there is an absence of tentative to application of an artificial cognitive architecture in dementia care, which corroborates with the belief that this is still a cutting-edge technology and this study has a novel interdisciplinary area. Our proof-of-concept handled the data of the patient to provide information from reliable sources, such as Alzheimer’s association, to non-professional caregiver’s decision-making regardless of the disease stage. However, it is in a nascent state of development and requires further research to be applied in real scenarios.