Ecological Assessments of Activities of Daily Living and Personal Experiences with Mobus, An Assistive Technology for Cognition: A Pilot Study in Schizophrenia

Mobus is a cognitive orthotic designed for people with difficulties managing Activities of Daily Living (ADL), as encountered in schizophrenia. It provides a schedule manager as well as the possibility to report occurrences of symptomatic experiences. Receiving this information by Internet, caregivers can assist the patient rehabilitation process. Our aim was to explore the use and satisfaction of Mobus by people with schizophrenia. Nine outpatients tested Mobus for 6 weeks. Indicators of cognitive functioning and autonomy were measured with the CAmbridge Neuropsychological Tests Automated Battery (CANTAB) and the Independant Living Skills Scale (ILSS). On average, 42.6% of the planned ADL were validated and more than 1 symptom per week were reported. Mainly because of technical breakdown, more than 50% of the outpatients evaluated the Mobus satisfaction below 1.7/5, nevertheless 3 participants appreciated it greatly. Some enhancements were found on subscales of CANTAB and ILSS and some participants reported that they acquired planning skills by using Mobus. To ensure ease of use, refinements are needed from rehabilitation and technical approaches, especially to personalize the device. Discussions on ethical and methodological issues lead to an improved version of Mobus that will be tested with a larger sample size.