14Do Age, Gender and Stage of Dementia Matter in the Intervention Study of Communicative Robots? An Assessment of their Impact

Abstract

Background: The effectiveness of using socially assistive technologies such as communication robots in care settings has not been sufficiently assessed, despite much discussion on the inevitability of their use. The purpose of this paper is to examine how age, gender and stage of dementia can affect the effectiveness of using communicative robots in nursing facilities for older people. Methods: The participants were 51 older people cared for in three nursing homes (43 females and 8 males; aged 86.6+/−8.0 yrs. The control group consisted of 14 females (aged 86.5+/−6.3 yrs). Three types of communicative care robots (Parlo, Cota and Sota) were assigned to the participants for eight successive weeks. The five most important goals for nursing care were selected for each participant from 155 items identified by the WHO’s International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF) list prior to the allocation of a robot, and the changes were evaluated every day. We examined whether there are any correlations between age, gender and stage of dementia, and the degree of improvements. Statistical data were analysed using software package R and compared among the groups using Fisher’s exact test. Results: Overall, the intervention group showed a greater improvement in its assigned goals than the control group (p < 0.001). There was no difference between the genders in terms of effectiveness. The benefits that older participants received from the intervention were greater than those of the younger cohort (p < 0.05). With regard to the stage of dementia, greater improvements were found in participants with moderate dementia (Stage IIb or more) than those with mild dementia (Stage IIa or lower) (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Communicative care robots have great potential for enhancing older people’s capabilities, even among those with middle stage dementia. Further research should test the usability of these robots on a larger scale.