JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

A variety of technological interventions have been proposed and studied to address the growing demand for care of residents in senior living facilities, in which a preexisting shortage of professional caregivers has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Care robots are one such intervention with the potential to improve both the care of these older adults and the work life of their professional caregivers. Yet concerns about efficacy, ethics, and best practices in applications of robotic technologies in care settings remain.

Objective:

This scoping review was designed to (1) examine the literature on robots utilized in senior living facilities and (2) identify gaps in the literature to guide future research.

Methods:

Following existing guidelines for conducting scoping reviews, in February 2022 we searched PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature(CINAHL) Plus with Full Text, PsycINFO, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, and ACM Digital Library, using predetermined search terms. The search resulted in 679 nonduplicate publications in the health sciences, computer science, and engineering. Screening of titles and abstracts against inclusion and exclusion criteria yielded 127 publications for full screening; the final sample comprised 73 publications from 69 unique studies on the use of robots in senior living facilities.

Results:

The studies’ findings upon older adults were mixed, with some studies suggesting positive impacts of robots, some expressing concerns about robots and barriers to their use, and others inconclusive. Although many therapeutic benefits of care robots were identified, methodological limitations weakened the internal and external validity of the studies’ findings. Few studies considered the context of care: the majority (n = 48) collected data only on recipients of care, 15 collected data on staff, and 3 collected data on relatives or visitors. Theory-driven, longitudinal, and large sample size study designs were rare. Across the authors’ disciplines, a lack of consistency in methodological quality and reporting makes it difficult to synthesize and assess research on care robotics.

Conclusions:

The findings of this study call for more systematic research on the feasibility and efficacy of robots in senior living facilities. In particular, there is a dearth of research on how robots may change geriatric care and the work environment within senior living facilities. To maximize the benefits and minimize the consequences for older adults and caregivers, future research will require interdisciplinary collaboration among the health sciences, computer science, and engineering, as well as agreement on methodological standards.