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Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users

Background: The rapid development of new technologies has recently raised interest in the use of assistive robots in the care of older people. The success or failure of robots’ implementation is mediated by their acceptance by users. The aim of the study was to answer the question of how both older...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Łukasik, Sylwia, Tobis, Sławomir, Wieczorowska-Tobis, Katarzyna, Suwalska, Aleksandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266220/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30424561
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112535
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author Łukasik, Sylwia
Tobis, Sławomir
Wieczorowska-Tobis, Katarzyna
Suwalska, Aleksandra
author_facet Łukasik, Sylwia
Tobis, Sławomir
Wieczorowska-Tobis, Katarzyna
Suwalska, Aleksandra
author_sort Łukasik, Sylwia
collection PubMed
description Background: The rapid development of new technologies has recently raised interest in the use of assistive robots in the care of older people. The success or failure of robots’ implementation is mediated by their acceptance by users. The aim of the study was to answer the question of how both older people and caregivers perceive the possibility of using an assistive robot for nutritional support. Methods: Opinions of 252 respondents (126 older—aged 65 and above; 126 younger ones—aged below 65) from five European countries were collected using the Users’ Needs, Requirements, and Abilities Questionnaire. Results: The majority of participants positively assessed the possibility of using a robot to improve the diet of older people by giving advice on healthy eating or monitoring the amount of food consumed by the owner. An age-related difference was observed, as older people less frequently accepted the reminding of meal times or drinking liquids than younger participants. Four key categories related to the robot’s role in the diet of older people were identified: matching the needs, robot’s characteristics, ethical issues and technical/financial issues. Conclusions: Our preliminary research has shown a positive approach to robots in the context of their nutrition-related aspects. An indication has been made of the need to include older people and other stakeholders in the process of designing these functionalities and modeling human–robot interactions based on communication theories.
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spelling pubmed-62662202018-12-15 Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users Łukasik, Sylwia Tobis, Sławomir Wieczorowska-Tobis, Katarzyna Suwalska, Aleksandra Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: The rapid development of new technologies has recently raised interest in the use of assistive robots in the care of older people. The success or failure of robots’ implementation is mediated by their acceptance by users. The aim of the study was to answer the question of how both older people and caregivers perceive the possibility of using an assistive robot for nutritional support. Methods: Opinions of 252 respondents (126 older—aged 65 and above; 126 younger ones—aged below 65) from five European countries were collected using the Users’ Needs, Requirements, and Abilities Questionnaire. Results: The majority of participants positively assessed the possibility of using a robot to improve the diet of older people by giving advice on healthy eating or monitoring the amount of food consumed by the owner. An age-related difference was observed, as older people less frequently accepted the reminding of meal times or drinking liquids than younger participants. Four key categories related to the robot’s role in the diet of older people were identified: matching the needs, robot’s characteristics, ethical issues and technical/financial issues. Conclusions: Our preliminary research has shown a positive approach to robots in the context of their nutrition-related aspects. An indication has been made of the need to include older people and other stakeholders in the process of designing these functionalities and modeling human–robot interactions based on communication theories. MDPI 2018-11-12 2018-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6266220/ /pubmed/30424561 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112535 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Łukasik, Sylwia
Tobis, Sławomir
Wieczorowska-Tobis, Katarzyna
Suwalska, Aleksandra
Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users
title Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users
title_full Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users
title_fullStr Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users
title_full_unstemmed Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users
title_short Could Robots Help Older People with Age-Related Nutritional Problems? Opinions of Potential Users
title_sort could robots help older people with age-related nutritional problems? opinions of potential users
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266220/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30424561
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112535
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