Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Aging
Date Submitted: Mar 24, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 24, 2025 - May 19, 2025
Date Accepted: Jul 31, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Effectiveness of social robots in reducing loneliness among community-dwelling older adults: A randomized controlled trial and qualitative analysis in Japan
ABSTRACT
Background:
Most studies on interventions using social robots to reduce loneliness have been conducted in facilities in Western nations.
Objective:
This study evaluated the effectiveness of social robot interventions in reducing loneliness among community-dwelling older Japanese adults using a randomized controlled trial and qualitative analysis.
Methods:
Individuals aged ≥65 years who lived alone in Tokyo and neighboring areas and experienced loneliness were recruited. Seventy-three eligible participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group. The four-week intervention involved a humanoid social communication robot (BOCCO emo), which facilitated conversations with human operators and/or family members and reminded participants of daily tasks. The primary outcome was loneliness, with psychological well-being, depression, and laughter frequency as secondary outcomes. Participants were evaluated at baseline and follow-up. In the follow-up survey, participants in the intervention group provided open-ended responses regarding their experiences using the social robot.
Results:
A total of 68 participants completed both the baseline and follow-up surveys (n = 34 in each group; mean age: 82.3 years; 94.1% women). Loneliness decreased more in the intervention group than in the control group. Psychological well-being improved, and the frequency of laughter tended to increase in the intervention group. Content analysis identified four categories: “emotional support and psychological connection,” “lifestyle assistance,” “enrichment of social interaction,” and “cognitive and mental stimulation.”
Conclusions:
Social robots can reduce loneliness among community-dwelling older adults in non-Western societies. Information and communication technology appears to be an effective approach to alleviating loneliness and enhancing well-being among older adults in community settings. Clinical Trial: UMIN000050644
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.