Family Care Partner Perceptions of a Social Assistive Robot to Support Connectedness and Health Behaviors in Assisted Living

Social assistive robots (SAR) have potential to offer social and cognitive engagement for older adults residing in assisted living facilities. There is a need for expanded socialization opportunities for residents with or at risk for dementia given the growing rate of dementia and limited professional caregiving workforce. This was an exploratory study investigating family care partners’ first impressions and feedback on SAR (both physical and virtual robot) technology during development. The goal was to capture family care partner attitudes (positive, negative, mixed) and recommendations of SAR. Family care partners (n = 10) viewed videos of SAR interactions and participated in online semi-structured discussions. Qualitative content analysis identified predominately positive attitudes of SAR benefit (f = 111) over concerns (f = 65) or mixed opinions (f = 39). These attitudes and recommendations (f = 256) were analyzed using a codebook created from foundational technology acceptance models. Perceived usefulness/function was the leading theme across benefits, concerns, and recommendations, which is aligned with previous findings of it being a predictive factor for technology adoption. Future research should explore customization of SAR for persons with cognitive impairment, adapting usefulness/function for disease progression.