Caregiver perspectives on a smart home-based socially assistive robot for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia

Abstract

Purpose: Innovative assistive technology can address aging-in-place and caregiving needs of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD). The purpose of this study was to beta-test a novel socially assistive robot (SAR) with a cohort of ADRD caregivers and gather their perspectives on its potential integration in the home context.

Methods: The SAR involved a programmable research robot linked with commercially available Internet of things sensors to receive and respond to care recipient’s behaviour. Eight caregivers observed the SAR perform two care protocols concerning the care recipient’s daily routine and home safety, and then participated in a focus group and phone interview. The researchers used grounded theory and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology as a framework to gather and analyse the data.

Results: The caregivers’ asserted the potential of the SAR to relieve care burden and envisioned it as a next-generation technology for caregivers. Adoption of the SAR, as an identified theme, was subject to the SAR’s navigability, care recipient engagement, adaptability, humanoid features, and interface design. In contrast, barriers leading to potential rejection were technological complexity, system failure, exasperation of burden, and failure to address digital divide.

Conclusion: From a broader outlook, success of SARs as a home-health technology for ADRD is reliant on the timing of their integration, commercial viability, funding provisions, and their bonding with the care recipient. Long-term research in the home settings is required to verify the usability and impact of SARs in mediating aging-in-place of individuals with ADRD.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Socially assistive robots (SARs), an emerging domain of assistive technology, are projected to have a crucial role in supporting aging-in-place of individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD).

• Caregivers of individuals with ADRD who observed and interacted with a novel SAR asserted their acceptance of the technology as well as its scope and feasibility for the upcoming generation of caregivers.

• Navigability, care recipient engagement, adaptability, humanoid features, and interface design were stated to be critical factors for SAR's acceptance by caregiver and care recipient dyads.

• In contrast, technological complexity, system failure, exasperation of burden, and failure to address digital divide are detrimental to SAR's adoption.

• Several design and implementation requirements must be considered towards the full-scale development and deployment of the SARs in the home context.

Keywords:

• Socially assistive robot
• assistive robotics
• Alzheimer’s disease
• dementia
• smart home
• internet of things
• aging-in-place

Acknowledgements

The researchers would like to thank the following graduate occupational therapy students for their engagement and contribution to this research: Ellen Ross, Casey Buckley, Juliana Vendola, Chelsy Moody and Janine Holder.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the study was provided by a University of New Hampshire Collaborative Research Excellence (CoRE) grant. Initial support was provided by the England Faculty fund at the College of Health and Human Resources at the University of New Hampshire.