Acceptance and perceived usefulness of robots to assist with activities of daily living and healthcare tasks

Abstract

As the number of older adults living with chronic conditions continues to rise, they will require assistance with activities of daily living (ADL) and healthcare tasks to continue living independently in their homes. One proposed solution to assist with the care needs of an aging population and a shrinking healthcare workforce is robotic technology. Using a cross-sectional survey design, we purposively sampled adults (≥18 years old) to assess generational acceptance and perceived usefulness of robots to assist with ADLs, healthcare tasks, and evaluate acceptance of robotic healthcare assistance across different settings. A total of 499 adults (age range [years] 18-98, Mean = 38.7, SD = 22.7) responded to the survey. Significant differences were found among young, middle-aged, and older adults on perceived usefulness of robots for cleaning, escorting them around town, acting as companionship, delivering meals, assessing sadness and calling for help, providing medical advice, taking vital sign assessments, and assisting with personal care (p < 0.05). The majority of younger adults reported that they would like a robot to provide healthcare assistance in the hospital, compared to middle-aged and older adults (p < 0.001). Results of this study can guide the design of robots to assist adults of all ages with useful tasks.

Comfort and Attitudes Towards Robots Among Young, Middle‐Aged, and Older Adults: A Cross‐Sectional Study

“…The authors’ Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved this study. Additional details about this study are available in [Hall and colleagues (2017)].…”

“…We deployed a survey that is described further in [Hall and colleagues (2017)]. The introduction defined robots as “an autonomous machine which can assist humans (e.g.…”

“…Respondents self-identified their age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, health, and current use of and confidence using robots and technologies that included checklist responses. See [Hall and colleagues (2017)] for descriptions of the questions. The final survey was reviewed by two groups of experts for face validity, clarity, and understandability.…”

Application of Reinforcement Learning to a Robotic Drinking Assistant

“…However, the corresponding workforce for caretaking is not able to keep up. Hall et al [5] report that there is good acceptance for assistive robotics in healthcare and ADLs. Drinking and eating assistive robotic tasks are considered highly prioritized [6] and require the robot to be in direct contact with the user.…”

Robots responding to care needs? A multitasking care robot pursued for 25 years, available products offer simple entertainment and instrumental assistance

“…Chen et al 2017;Coco et al 2018;D'Onofrio et al 2018;Hall et al 2017;Khosla et al 2017; Pew Research Center 2017; Pino et al 2015; Rantanen et al 2018; Smarr et al 2014; Wolbring and Yumakulov 2014). For instance, the survey conducted by…”