Investigating the effectiveness of Socially Assistive Robot on Depression and Cognitive Functions of Community Dwelling Older Adults with Cognitive Impairments

ABSTRACT

We evaluated a socially assistive robot (SAR) named Hyodol during a six-week intervention. This study enrolled 69 older adults with cognitive decline. To screen the eligibility, we have used the following three criteria, namely Korean-Mini-Mental Status Exam score ≤ 26). Clinical Dementia Rating 0.5–2), and Diagnostics and Statistical Manual V. Participants were divided into three groups based on their cognitive function (i.e. very mild cognitive impairment (vMCI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and moderate cognitive impairment (MOCI). The groups were instructed to use Hyodol at home for a six-week period. Baseline and post-intervention surveys were performed after six weeks to examine the changes in perceived health, depression, and cognitive function. The vMCI group showed a reduction in the depression score after the intervention (t = −2.447, p = 0.040), in comparison to their peers in the control group. Further, the MCI group showed an improvement in the cognitive function score after the intervention (t = 2.690, p = 0.021). No significant improvement was found among MOCI participants who used the SARs. The significance of this study was to examine whether participants with different levels of cognitive functioning would diverge after a period of intervention using the Hyodol SARs. Moreover, it presented preliminary data for services and policies for home care treatment targeted to cognitive decline in older adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive function
• cognitive impairment
• home care
• older adults
• socially assistive robot

Disclosure statement

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

Authors’ contributions

JWJ and HSJ designed the study. YSH and HSJ collected the data. YSH and SKK analyzed the data. OEL, YSH SKK and JWJ prepared the manuscript. All authors approved the final version for submission.

Clinical trial registration no

KCT0007583.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Kangwon National University Hospital (IRB No. KNUH-2020-04-006-010).

Patient consent statement

Informed consent was read to each participant, a nd signatures were obtained from each research participant.

Permission to reproduce material from other sources

There are no reproducible materials from other sources in this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT [No. NRF-2019R1A2C1005840].