ArticleJMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies2023
Older Adults' Engagement and Mood During Robot-Assisted Group Activities in Nursing Homes: Development and Observational Pilot Study.
Article in JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Group Interventions With Socially-Assistive Robots for Older Adults: A Systematic Review.Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing · 2025Pooled it
- Evaluating a Social Robot Reception Service in an Italian Geriatric Hospital (HOSPER Study): Protocol for a Usability Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Study on the current status and influencing factors of physical activity in pre-frail rural empty-nest older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Let's make up a story: design and evaluation of an improvisational storytelling robot to foster older adults' meaning and purpose in life.Frontiers in dementia · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundPromoting the well-being of older adults in an aging society requires new solutions. One resource might be the use of social robots for group activities that promote physical and cognitive stimulation. Engaging in a robot-assisted group activity may help in the slowdown of physical and cognitive decline in older adults. Currently, our knowledge is limited on whether older adults engage in group activities with humanlike social robots and whether they experience a positive affect while doing so. Both are necessary preconditions to achieve the intended effects of a group activity.
objectiveOur pilot study has 2 aims. First, we aimed to develop and pilot an observational coding scheme for robot-assisted group activities because self-report data on engagement and mood of nursing home residents are often difficult to obtain, and the existing observation instruments do have limitations. Second, we aimed to investigate older adults' engagement and mood during robot-assisted group activities in 4 different nursing care homes in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
methodsWe developed an observation system, inspired by existing tools, for a structured observation of engagement and mood of older adults during a robot-assisted group activity. In this study, 85 older adult residents from 4 different care homes in Switzerland participated in 5 robot-assisted group activity sessions, and they were observed using our developed system. The data were collected in the form of video clips that were assessed by 2 raters regarding engagement (direction of gaze, posture as well as body expression, and activity) and mood (positive and negative affects). Both variables were rated on a 5-point rating scale.
resultsOur pilot study findings show that the engagement and mood of older adults can be assessed reliably by using the proposed observational coding scheme. Most participants actively engaged in robot-assisted group activities (mean 4.19, SD 0.47; median 4.0). The variables used to measure engagement were direction of gaze (mean 4.65, SD 0.49; median 5.0), posture and body expression (mean 4.03, SD 0.71; median 4.0), and activity (mean 3.90, SD 0.65; median 4.0). Further, we observed mainly positive affects in this group. Almost no negative affect was observed (mean 1.13, SD 0.20; median 1.0), while the positive affect (mean 3.22, SD 0.55; median 3.2) was high.
conclusionsThe developed observational coding system can be used and further developed in future studies on robot-assisted group activities in the nursing home context and potentially in other settings. Additionally, our pilot study indicates that cognitive and physical stimulation of older adults can be promoted by social robots in a group setting. This finding encourages future technological development and improvement of social robots and points to the potential of observational research to systematically evaluate such developments.
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