Robotic Animal Use among Older Adults Enrolled in Palliative or Hospice Care: A Scoping Review and Framework for Future Research

Robotic Animal Use among Older Adults Enrolled in Palliative or Hospice Care: A Scoping Review and Framework for Future Research

As the population of older adults increases, there is an anticipated rise in the utilization of hospice and palliative care. Many significant advancements in technology have been used to address the unique needs of this demographic; however, an unexplored area of research is the use of robotic anima...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Robotics (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 6; p. 92
Main Authors: Miles, Allyson, Fields, Noelle L, Bennett, Michael, Xu, Ling, Magruder, Karen, Stringfellow, Mary Kris, Sesay, Benjamin J, Handique, Swasati
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-06-2024
Subjects:
Adults
Analysis
Animal cognition
animal robot
Animals
Clinical trials
Communication
Dementia
End of life
hospice
Hospice care
Hospices (Terminal care)
Human-computer interaction
Illnesses
Loneliness
Long term health care
Nursing homes
Older people
Palliative care
Palliative treatment
Pets
Quality of life
Robotics
Robots
social robotics
Systematic review
Technology application
United States
United States > US
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Summary:As the population of older adults increases, there is an anticipated rise in the utilization of hospice and palliative care. Many significant advancements in technology have been used to address the unique needs of this demographic; however, an unexplored area of research is the use of robotic animals as part of end-of-life care. The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the state of the literature on robotic animal use among older adults enrolled in palliative or hospice care and to offer a framework for future research. Following a guide for scoping reviews, we identified relevant studies and then charted, collated, summarized, and reported the data. Two articles were selected for final review. The results found that decreased medication use, behavior change, and emotional benefits were potential outcomes of robotic animal use in hospice and palliative care. Perceptions of the robot and ethical considerations were also discussed. Overall, the study findings point toward the potential uses of robotic animals as part of end-of-life care, however, more empirical research is critically needed.
ISSN:2218-6581
2218-6581
DOI:10.3390/robotics13060092