Geographic Information System (GIS) based intervention *Viamigo* for people with dementia and their informal caregivers: A single-arm trial to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary participant responses.

People with dementia living in the community experience reduced out-of-home
mobility and participate less in activities outside home. This results in
reduced social participation outside home, which can negatively affect their
health (e.g. leads to social isolation and increased risk of depressive
symptoms). Technological interventions show promise in enhancing the social
participation of people with dementia. However, there is a lack of
technological interventions that facilitate social participation outside home.
While a growing body of evidence highlights the potential of Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) in facilitating the out-of-home mobility of people
with dementia and reducing informal caregivers* feelings of worry, very little
attention is paid to the potential of GIS in enhancing the social participation
of people with dementia. The GIS-based mobile application Viamigo aims to
support the independent out-of-home mobility of the user and to reduce informal
caregiver*s burden by teaching users a known individual route, which they can
accomplish independently afterwards while being monitored by an informal
caregiver. Although Viamigo was initially developed for persons with
intellectual disabilities, it is expected that it can also support and improve
out-of-home mobility and thereby the social participation of people with
dementia.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of the Viamigo
intervention among people with dementia living in the community and their
informal caregivers. The secondary objective of this study is to assess the
first responses of people with dementia and informal caregivers to the Viamigo
intervention.

This feasibility study includes a mixed methods single-arm pre-post design with
a baseline assessment, a 3-month intervention period, and a post-intervention
assessment.

All eligible and consenting dyads will be asked to participate in the Viamigo
intervention, consisting of three main components: (1) a face-to-face
technology training session of 60 minutes, (2) a 3-month period of using the
Viamigo intervention with support phone calls of approximately 5 minutes by the
coordinating investigator once every two weeks, and (3) an evaluation phone
call of 5-10 minutes.

People with dementia will be asked to fill in the same two questionnaires
(approximately 20 minutes in total) during the baseline
and post-intervention assessment. Additionally, they are asked to fill in a
daily travel diary for one week at baseline, and the last
week of the intervention period. Informal caregivers will be asked to fill in
the same three questionnaires (approximately 25
minutes in total) during the baseline and post-intervention assessment and
another 15-minutes questionnaire during the postintervention
assessment. At the baseline meeting, persons with dementia and their informal
caregivers will also be asked about
demographic data (about 1 hour and 30 minutes). Additionally, a smaller sample
of the dyads (10 dyads) will be asked to share
their experiences using the Viamigo intervention in a semi-structured
post-intervention interview of approximately 30 minutes.
Dyads will be asked whether they prefer to conduct the different assessments at
home or another location (e.g. Maastricht
University). By participating in the study, a participant with dementia might
be more often exposed to potentially risky situations
in his or her living environment (e.g. traffic). Participation in a
technological intervention study can be time-consuming and
demanding. One way to reduce the burden of the study is to give participants
the freedom to use the Viamigo application at their
own pace.