Recently, the paper titled “A Board Game Performance Index – a disruptive innovation to assess people with dementia with different apathy levels”, co-authored by Marlene Rosa, Susana Lopes, Natália Martins and Elena Lacomba-Arnau, was selected as one of the best papers at the 12th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH 2024), which took place at the Rectory Building of the University of Madeira, on 7-9 august. 

The organizing committee invited the research team to submit an extended version of their work to be integrated in a special issue of the Games for Health Journal, dedicated to SeGAH 2024. 

This pilot study aims to explore if there is a difference in a comprehensive game index between people with dementia with different levels of apathy. According to this goal, patients with dementia were recruited and thirteen were selected for this study, and sociodemographic data, apathy levels (APADEM) and a game performance index were collected. Then, patients were divided into two groups according to the percentile 50 in APADEM and the game performance index was compared. Results demonstrated that patients with different levels of apathy have significant differences in the Board Game Performance Index. 

SeGAH 2024 gathered researchers, clinicians and academics of 25 countries to discuss the use of gaming technologies in health contexts and the future of this dynamic field of work.