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Healthcare Robots in Homes of Rural Older Adults

  • Conference paper
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Social Robotics (ICSR 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9388))

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Abstract

Older adults in rural communities who have chronic health conditions are often isolated from social support and medical clinics. Robots may be able to assist with day to day healthcare and provide companionship. This paper presents four case studies of older adults who had chronic health conditions in a rural community. They were given a healthcare robot in their homes for a period of three months to a year. The robot reminded people to take medications, had entertainment and memory games, and skype. Rates of hospitalizations, primary care visits, and phone calls to the medical practitioners before the study began were compared to rates during the study period. Participants also completed questionnaires about their quality of life, mental health, medication adherence, and robot attitudes and were interviewed. The results showed a decrease in primary care visits and phone calls to the practitioners while the robot was present and increases in quality of life were observed. Despite encountering technical issues, patients were mostly positive and accepting of the robot, acknowledging its benefits as a companion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Josephine R. Orejana, Bruce A. MacDonald, Ho Seok Ahn, Kathryn Peri & Elizabeth Broadbent

Authors
  1. Josephine R. Orejana
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  2. Bruce A. MacDonald
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  3. Ho Seok Ahn
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  4. Kathryn Peri
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  5. Elizabeth Broadbent
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth Broadbent .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Robotics and Computer Vision Lab, ENSTA-ParisTech, Palaiseau, France

    Adriana Tapus

  2. Inst für Informatik, Human-Ctr Multimedi, Universität Augsburg, Augsburg, Bayern, Germany

    Elisabeth André

  3. LIMSI-CNRS, Orsay, France

    Jean-Claude Martin

  4. Robotics and Computer Vision Lab, ENSTA-ParisTech, Palaiseau, France

    François Ferland

  5. LIMSI-CNRS, Orsay, France

    Mehdi Ammi

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Orejana, J.R., MacDonald, B.A., Ahn, H.S., Peri, K., Broadbent, E. (2015). Healthcare Robots in Homes of Rural Older Adults. In: Tapus, A., André, E., Martin, JC., Ferland, F., Ammi, M. (eds) Social Robotics. ICSR 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9388. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_51

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_51

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25553-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25554-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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