The essential needs for home-care robots in Japan
Journal of Enabling Technologies
ISSN: 2398-6263
Article publication date: 2 November 2020
Issue publication date: 9 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to compare the level of needs for home-care robots amongst older adults, family caregivers and home-care staff and clarify the factors constituting these needs.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional, anonymous questionnaire survey was administered. It included 52 items related to needs for home-care robots rated on a four-point Likert scale. Means and standard deviations were calculated, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was performed for each item. Factor analysis was conducted on the needs of home-care staff.
Findings
Responses from 79 older adults, 54 family caregivers and 427 home-care staff were analysed. For all three groups, the level of agreement was high for the following needs: to inform family and support personnel immediately when older adults fall, about their location in case of natural disasters and about mismanagement of fire by older adults with dementia. For family caregivers and home-care staff, the level of need concerning monitoring was higher than for older adults. Extracted using factor analysis, the six factors representing the essential needs for home-care robots were risk minimisation, daily monitoring of the physical condition, supporting activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL, pre-empting problems, communication and miscellaneous support.
Originality/value
The results showed that the education of caregivers and the co-design process of robot development should involve home-care staff, older adults and family caregivers, which are important for making decisions about the use of home-care robots for older adults.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank all the participants who contributed to the study. A part of this study was presented in the 7th Hong Kong International Nursing Forum (Tsujimura et al., 2017a).This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Numbers: [JP25293460, JP16K12236]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis or preparation of the manuscript.Statement of conflict of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare
Citation
Tsujimura, M., Ide, H., Yu, W., Kodate, N., Ishimaru, M., Shimamura, A. and Suwa, S. (2020), "The essential needs for home-care robots in Japan", Journal of Enabling Technologies, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 201-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/JET-03-2020-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited