Assistive robots to improve the independent living of older persons: results from a needs study

Abstract

Background

More than 70% of elderly people age 80 and older are experiencing problems in personal mobility. Assistive robotics can represent a concrete support providing also a support for caregivers, clinicians and nurses by reducing their burden.

Methods

A total of 20 older people and 34 caregivers (formal and informal) were interviewed in Italy and the Netherlands to investigate and prioritize their needs concerning the personal mobility domains and their attitudes towards assistive robots. The data were analysed from a user point of view by means of thematic content analysis by underlying recurrent topics.

Results

The results revealed four categories of needs from the perspective of the older individuals: instrumental needs, rehabilitation needs, personal safety and indoor activities of daily life. Additionally, the results underline how personal mobility issues influence different aspects of daily life. Complementarily, three categories of caregiver needs were also distinguished: instrumental needs, rehabilitation monitoring needs and checkup needs. The highest percentage of participants showed a positive expectation towards assistive robotics.

Conclusions

The results were clustered according to the robot abilities (i.e., motion, interaction, manipulation, decision support and perception abilities) as a list of functional and technical requirements that should be developed to address all the needs related to the personal mobility. Robotic developer teams that work in this context could take advantage of this research. Additionally, this work can be used as a basis for clinicians and nurses working in geriatric units to understand how the robots can support and enhance their work.

Implications for rehabilitation

• The incidence of personal mobility limitations affects 35% of adults age 70 and older and 72% of people over 80 years of age.

• Assistive robots can support elderly people during daily tasks: they could promote their personal mobility acting as a supporting tool.

• The results of the needs analysis revealed four categories of needs from the perspective of the older individuals: instrumental needs, rehabilitation needs, personal safety, and indoor activities of daily life.

• Three categories of caregiver needs were also distinguished: instrumental needs, rehabilitation monitoring needs, and check-up needs.

Keywords:

• Personal mobility
• assistive robots
• technical and functional requirements
• needs study
• elderly people

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the important contribution of participating older persons and formal and informal caregiver in the needs analysis study. Additionally, the authors would like to thank all the other members of ACCRA consortium for the support in the development of the methodology procedures.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

In Netherlands, the study protocol was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, under number: MEC-2017-536. In Italy, the study protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee of “Fondazione Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, under protocol number: N 112/CE. Written informed consent to participate in the study and to use the data for research purpose was obtained from the participants.

Authors’ contributions

ES, DG, LF, MT, MM, GDO, IF, RL defined the guidelines for the methodology. LF, MM, GDO planned the study for the mobility application. FG prepared the module for the informed consent and the ethical approval. AG and FG made the recruitment for the Italian pilot site and MT made the recruitment for the Dutch pilot site. GDO, DS, and AV conducted the needs analysis of the Italian pilot site. MT, MM and IF conducted the needs analysis of the Dutch pilot site and made the synthesis of the two-countries. LF, RL, FC and AV analyzed the technical requirement and discussed the results. LF and RL wrote the technical requirements and the discussion. MT, MM, IF and GDO wrote the needs analysis results. AV and FG analyzed the data protection and related discussion. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript and are accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ACCRA Project, funded by the European Commission – Horizon 2020 Founding Program (H2020-SCI-PM14-2016) and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan under grant agreement no. 738251.