Repeat After Me: Dynamic Workouts for The Wellbeing of Elderly Individuals with Dementia

Abstract

In the past two decades, social robots have been utilized in the healthcare of elderly individuals with dementia to assist in exercising and companionship. In this research, we investigated whether elderly individuals with dementia were more engaged when receiving varying mobility sessions from a social robot than non-varying mobility sessions. Groups of elderly individuals with dementia (N=18) of differing dementia levels participated in three exercise sessions either with varying sessions (n=9) or with non-varying sessions (n=9). Our results show a small improvement in engagement in varied sessions compared to non-varied sessions, however, the difference was not significant. Additionally, the study gives insights into the application of this technology and the challenges involved in conducting this type of experiment.