Socially Assistive Robots for patients with Alzheimer's Disease: A scoping review

Vania Karami; Mark J Yaffe; Genevieve Gore; AJung Moon; Samira Abbasgholizadeh Rahimi

doi:10.1016/j.archger.2024.105409

Socially Assistive Robots for patients with Alzheimer's Disease: A scoping review

Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2024 Aug:123:105409. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2024.105409. Epub 2024 Mar 12.

Authors

Vania Karami¹, Mark J Yaffe², Genevieve Gore³, AJung Moon⁴, Samira Abbasgholizadeh Rahimi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada; Mila - Quebec AI Institute, Montreal, Canada.
² Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; St. Mary's Hospital Center, Montreal, Canada.
³ Schulich Library of Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
⁴ Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
⁵ Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada; Mila - Quebec AI Institute, Montreal, Canada; Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences. Electronic address: samira.rahimi@mcgill.ca.

PMID: 38565072
DOI: 10.1016/j.archger.2024.105409

Abstract

Background: The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's Disease (AD), is challenging for both those affected as well as for their care providers, and caregivers. Socially assistive robots (SARs) offer promising supportive care to assist in the complex management associated with AD.

Objectives: To conduct a scoping review of published articles that proposed, discussed, developed or tested SAR for interacting with AD patients.

Methods: We performed a scoping review informed by the methodological framework of Arksey and O'Malley and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist for reporting the results. At the identification stage, an information specialist performed a comprehensive search of 8 electronic databases from the date of inception until January 2022 in eight bibliographic databases. The inclusion criteria were all populations who recive or provide care for AD, all interventions using SAR for AD and our outcomes of inteerst were any outcome related to AD patients or care providers or caregivers. All study types published in the English language were included.

Results: After deduplication, 1251 articles were screened. Titles and abstracts screening resulted to 252 articles. Full-text review retained 125 included articles, with 72 focusing on daily life support, 46 on cognitive therapy, and 7 on cognitive assessment.

Conclusion: We conducted a comprehensive scoping review emphasizing on the interaction of SAR with AD patients, with a specific focus on daily life support, cognitive assessment, and cognitive therapy. We discussed our findings' pertinence relative to specific populations, interventions, and outcomes of human-SAR interaction on users and identified current knowledge gaps in SARs for AD patients.

Keywords: Aging; Alzheimer's disease; Artificial intelligence; Dementia; Mild cognitive impairment; Robotic; Socially assistive robot.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease* / psychology
Alzheimer Disease* / rehabilitation
Alzheimer Disease* / therapy
Caregivers / psychology
Humans
Robotics* / methods
Self-Help Devices