scholarly journals A Systematic Review of Robotics Research in Support of In-Home Care for Older Adults

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anas Abou Allaban ◽  
Maozhen Wang ◽  
Taşkın Padır

The aging population is growing at an unprecedented rate globally and robotics-enabled solutions are being developed to provide better independent living for older adults. In this study, we report the results from a systematic review of the state-of-the-art in home robotics research for caring for older adults. This review aims to address two questions: (1) What research is being done towards integrating robotics for caring for older adults? (2) What are the research and technology challenges that robots are facing in the home? Sixty-three papers have been identified and studied in this review by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Common themes that are consistent across the reviewed papers are distinguished and consolidated as follows: (1) Ambient assisted living, where smart home environments and physical support tools are studied; (2) Robot ecosystem, where robotic devices are used to provide various services; (3) Social interaction, where the social isolation problem has been targeted. We also summarize the results of similar literature reviews we came across during our search. The results of this study present the current research trends and technologies used in each category. The challenges and limitations of robotics applications are also identified. Suggestions for accelerating the deployment of robots at home for providing older adults with independent care in the home are presented based on the results and insights from this study.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
helene sauzeon ◽  
Arlette Edjolo ◽  
Hélène Amieva ◽  
Charles Consel ◽  
Karine Pérès

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technology is expected as a promising way for prolonging the aging in place. Very few evidence-based results are provided support to its real value, notably for frail older adults who have high risk of autonomy loss and of entering in nursing home. Objective: HomeAssist (HA) is a human-centered AAL platform offering a large set of applications for three main age-related need domains (Activities of Daily Living, Safety and Social participation), relying on a basic set of entities (sensors, actuators...). The HA intervention involves monitoring as well as assistive services to support independent living at home. The primary outcomes measures are related to aging in place in terms of effectiveness (institutionalization and hospitalization rates) and efficiency (everyday functioning indices). Secondary outcomes measures include indices of frailty, cognitive functioning, and psychosocial health of participants and their caregivers. Every 6 months, user experience and attitudes towards HA are also collected in equipped participants. Concomitantly, HA usages are collected. Methods: A study assessing the HA efficacy has been designed and is now conducted with 131 older adults aged 81.9 (±6.0) years (from autonomous to frail) who lived alone. The study design is quasi-experimental with a duration of 12 months optionally extensible to 24 months. It includes equipped participants, matched with non-equipped participants (n= 474). Follow-up assessments occurred at 0, 12 and 24 months. Results: The expected results are to inform the AAL value for independent living, but also to yield informed analysis on AAL usages and adoption in frail older individuals.


10.2196/14182 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e14182
Author(s):  
Philipp Brauner ◽  
Martina Ziefle

Background Many societies are facing demographic changes that challenge the viability of health and welfare systems. Serious games for health care and ambient assisted living (AAL) offer health benefits and support for older adults and may mitigate some of the negative effects of the demographic shift. Objective This study aimed to examine the acceptance of serious games to promote physical health in AAL environments. Since AAL environments are designed specifically to support independent living in older adults, we studied the relationship among age and user diversity, performance in the game, and overall usability and acceptance evaluation. Methods We developed a motion-based serious exercise game for prototypical AAL environments. In two evaluations, outside (n=71) and within (n=64) the AAL environment, we investigated the influence of age, gender, self-efficacy in interacting with technology, need for achievement on performance, effect of the game, usability evaluation of the game, and overall acceptance. Results Both games were evaluated as easy to use and fun to play. Both game interventions had a strong pain-mitigating effect in older adults (game 1: −55%, P=.002; game 2: −66%, P=.01). Conclusions Serious exercise games outside and inside AAL environments can contribute to individuals’ health and well-being and to the stability of health care systems.


Author(s):  
Ashish D Patel ◽  
Jigarkumar H. Shah

The aged population of the world is increasing by a large factor due to the availability of medical and other facilities. As the number grows rapidly, requirements of this segment of age (65+) are increasing rapidly as well as the percentage of aged persons living alone is also increasing with the same rate due to the inevitable socio-economic changes. This situation demands the solution of many problems like loneliness, chronic conditions, social interaction, transportation, day-to-day life and many more for independent living person. A large part of aged population may not be able to interact directly with new technologies. This sought some serious development towards the use of intelligent systems i.e. smart devices which helps the people with their inability to use the available as well future solutions. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is the answer to these problems. In this paper, issues related to AAL systems are studied. Study of challenges and limitations of this comparatively new field will help the designers to remove the barriers of AAL systems.


Drugs & Aging ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-101
Author(s):  
Ka Keat Lim ◽  
Hui Ting Ang ◽  
Yu Heng Kwan ◽  
Chuen Seng Tan ◽  
Truls Ostbye ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Latikka ◽  
Rosana Rubio-Hernández ◽  
Elena Simona Lohan ◽  
Juho Rantala ◽  
Fernando Nieto Fernández ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Loneliness and social isolation can have severe effects on human health and well-being. Partial solutions to combat these circumstances in demographically aging societies have been sought from the field of information and communication technology (ICT). OBJECTIVE This systematic literature review investigates the research conducted on older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and physical ICTs, namely robots, wearables, and smart homes, in the era of ambient assisted living (AAL). The aim is to gain insight into how technology can help overcome loneliness and social isolation other than by fostering social communication with people and what the main open-ended challenges according to the reviewed studies are. METHODS The data were collected from 7 bibliographic databases. A preliminary search resulted in 1271 entries that were screened based on predefined inclusion criteria. The characteristics of the selected studies were coded, and the results were summarized to answer our research questions. RESULTS The final data set consisted of 23 empirical studies. We found out that ICT solutions such as smart homes can help detect and predict loneliness and social isolation, and technologies such as robotic pets and some other social robots can help alleviate loneliness to some extent. The main open-ended challenges across studies relate to the need for more robust study samples and study designs. Further, the reviewed studies report technology- and topic-specific open-ended challenges. CONCLUSIONS Technology can help assess older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and alleviate loneliness without direct interaction with other people. The results are highly relevant in the COVID-19 era, where various social restrictions have been introduced all over the world, and the amount of research literature in this regard has increased recently.


Author(s):  
Jinhui Li ◽  
Kanokkorn Witedwittayanusat ◽  
Luxi Chen ◽  
Yuanyuan Cao ◽  
Shan Qi Lee ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (16) ◽  
pp. 996-1002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie K Farlie ◽  
Lauren Robins ◽  
Romi Haas ◽  
Jennifer L Keating ◽  
Elizabeth Molloy ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThe objective of this systematic review was to examine the effects of different balance exercise interventions compared with non-balance exercise controls on balance task performance in older adults.DesignSystematic review.Data sourcesMedline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, Scopus and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched until July 2017.Eligibility criteria for selecting studiesSystematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised trials of balance exercise interventions for older adults were identified for extraction of eligible randomised trials. Eligibility criteria for inclusion of randomised trials in meta-analyses were comparison of a balance exercise intervention with a control group that did not perform balance exercises, report of at least one end-intervention balance outcome measurement that was consistent with the five subgroups of balance exercise identified, and full-text article available in English.ResultsNinety-five trials were included in meta-analyses and 80 in meta-regressions. For four balance exercise types (control centre of mass, multidimensional, mobility and reaching), significant effects for balance exercise interventions were found in meta-analyses (standardised mean difference (SMD) 0.31–0.50), however with considerable heterogeneity in observed effects (I2: 50.4%–80.6%). Risk of bias assessments (Physiotherapy Evidence Database score and funnel plots) did not explain heterogeneity. One significant relationship identified in the meta-regressions of SMD and balance exercise frequency, time and duration explained 2.1% of variance for the control centre of mass subgroup.ConclusionLimitations to this study included the variability in design of balance interventions, incomplete reporting of data and statistical heterogeneity. The design of balance exercise programmes provides inadequate explanation of the observed benefits of these interventions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 195-207
Author(s):  
Soraia Teles ◽  
Rita Tavares de Sousa ◽  
Diogo Abrantes ◽  
Diotima Bertel ◽  
Ana Ferreira ◽  
...  

Drugs & Aging ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 625-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Ting Ang ◽  
Ka Keat Lim ◽  
Yu Heng Kwan ◽  
Pui San Tan ◽  
Kai Zhen Yap ◽  
...  

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