Experience With a Robot for Home Care and Its Acceptance by People With Dementia, Caregivers and Dementia Trainers

January 29, 2019 updated by: Sandra Schüssler, Medical University of Graz

Experience With a Socially Assistive Robot for Home Care and Its Acceptance by People With Dementia, Caregivers and Dementia Trainers. A Mixed-method Intervention Study

Background:

Dementia rates are increasing worldwide and consequently burden global healthcare resources to a serious degree. However, there is a declining number of caregivers to provide care. It is for this reason that many new technologies, such as socially assistive robots, have been developed because of their potential to support caregivers in promoting the independence of people with dementia. Most of the (socially assistive) robots have so far been tested for people without dementia in mainly laboratory or institutional settings, like nursing homes. Consequently, there is a lack of knowledge about the possible uses of robots from the perspective of those affected by dementia in real-life/care situations (e.g. at home). Testing in a laboratory setting cannot capture the complexity and high variability of everyday situations occurring during the care of persons with dementia.

Methods

The design is a mixed method intervention study of a refined socially assistive humanoid robot. In total, three people with dementia, three relatives, three dementia trainers and three professional caregivers were included in the study. Quantitative data of technology acceptance were collected using the "Technology Usage Inventory". Qualitative data (main focus: experiences with the robot and handling the robot) were collected by means of observation and qualitative interviews. Movement data of people with dementia were collected by means of the eye camera of the robot.

This study helps to further refine and test a socially assistive robot for people with dementia living at home.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

12

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Austria
      • Graz, Austria, 8010
        • Medical University of Graz, Institute of Nursing Science

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Persons with dementia:

  • adults
  • living at home
  • all types of dementia
  • light and moderate dementia (MMSE 10 and above)
  • light dementia: living alone or with a relative at home (if alone: the relative should live in the neighborhood and be in daily contact with the person with dementia.)
  • moderate dementia: living with a relative at home
  • receive professional and/or non professional care or no care
  • speak and understand German
  • have no physical, auditory or visual restrictions, as this would make the application of the interventions impossible
  • do not take any dementia-specific medication or have been taking dementia-specific medication for at least 3 months; condition stable and no change expected during the study period
  • do not take antipsychotic and antidepressant medication or have been taking them for at least 14 days before study start
  • children and pets in the household after previous individual discussion

Relatives:

  • relatives of the participating persons with dementia (adults)
  • relatives means family members, like spouse, daughter, aunt, ... or significant others like friends and neighbors
  • living or not living with the person with dementia in the same household (in the case of moderate dementia, relatives must live in the same household)
  • person with dementia receives or receives no professional care
  • the relative provides or does not provide care
  • If the person with dementia receives paid 24-hour care (regardless of whether they have mild or moderate dementia), a relative still has to be recruited as a participant (This relative must live in the same house or household and be in daily contact with the person with dementia).
  • speak and understand German

Professional caregivers

  • adults
  • nurses
  • speak and understand German

Dementia trainers

  • adults
  • trained as M.A.S. (Morbus Alzheimer Syndrome) trainer
  • train the participants with dementia at home
  • speak and understand German

ExclusioncCriteria:

Persons with dementia:

  • known aggressive behavior
  • frontotemporal Dementia

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Coach Pepper
Pepper is a humanoid socially assistive robot
Device: Coach Pepper
Robot Peppers's height is 1.20 meters and it weighs 28 kilograms. Pepper will be called Coach Pepper, because it is connected, via web interfaces, with a theratainment app including cognitive and physical training

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Technology acceptance (all participants): "Technology Usage Inventory"
Time Frame: 1 week
The questionnaire "Technology Usage Inventory" measures technology acceptance. It captures technology-specific and psychological factors contributing to the use of a technological device. The questionnaire has 8 dimensions (curiosity:4 items, anxiety:4 items, interest:4 items, usability/user-friendliness: 3 items, immersion:4 items, utility:4 items, skepticism:4 items and accessibility:3 items) with 30 items (7-point Likert scale). For every dimension 1- 21 or 28 points can be obtained. For all dimensions, higher levels on the respective dimension indicate a higher level of expression in the respective construct.
1 week
Experience with the robot (all participants)
Time Frame: 1 week
Qualitative interviews with people with dementia. 1 qualitative focus group interview for all other participants.
1 week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Handling the robot (people with dementia)
Time Frame: After 3 days of intervention
Open, 1-hour semi-structured participant observation of people with dementia using the robot at home conducted by nurses.
After 3 days of intervention
Change of mobility (people with dementia)
Time Frame: 1 week
Movement data collected by the eye camera of the robot.
1 week

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Medical University of Graz

Collaborators

Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
Sozialverein Deutschlandsberg
Humanizing Technologies GmbH

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 22, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 18, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

September 18, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 9, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 29, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

January 30, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 30, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 29, 2019

Last Verified

January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 30-401ex17/18a

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Dementia

Clinical Trials on Coach Pepper

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in South Africa

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe