2.1. Cognitive Impairment and Depression in the Elderly
The elderly were easy to cause accidents due to the slowing of the reaction rate such as exercise response, reaction movement, memory, information processing, etc. Unlike the changes due to normal aging, the problem of the elderly on other disorders such as vascular disease, trauma of cognitive function gave the patient as well as the elderly family member or guardian a physical, mental and financial burden (Y. Won & S. Park, 2011). Cognitive dysfunction entailed the severe loss of memory and problem-solving skills enough to cause significant changes compared to the functioning level in the past. Dementia was particularly a representative disease of cognitive dysfunction, on the rise in the elderly population, emerging the world's biggest health problem in the 21st century. Moreover, after 65 years old, the dementia was known to increase doubles every five years and a common disease in old age, even with the increase of the elderly population, the incidence of dementia was expected to increase continuously (Y. Lee, 2011).
The improvement of cognitive function and the decrease of depression had relationship. The most of dementia are in the irreversible nature and due to the main symptom such as depression and other behavioral disorders that is caused by cognitive impairment, the active supports for the patients as well as their families are necessary (M. Cho, 2009). The elderly depression are appearing more with increasing age, lower income, lower education levels, alone or in poor physical health, the poorer functional health such as activities of daily living. Therefore, the way to improve cognitive function and to reduce depression have been actively sought (S. Jo & H. Yoon, 2011).
Depending upon what do you do during leisure time in old age, the satisfaction of life will vary for more enjoyable and healthy life, the application of serious games for the elderly that using the computer program as a media have been tried (Y. Lee, J. Ahn & K. Lim, 2009).