Article

In light of the increasing elderly population and the growing demand for
home care, the potential of robot support is given increasing attention. In this
paper, an inventory of activities was made that threaten independent living of
elderly when becoming problematic. Results will guide the further development of
an existing service robot, the Care-O-bot(R). METHOD: A systematic literature
search of PubMed was performed, focused on the risk factors for
institutionalization. Additionally, focus group sessions were conducted in the
Netherlands, United Kingdom and France. In these focus group sessions,
problematic activities threatening the independence of elderly people were
discussed. Three separate target groups were included in the focus group
sessions: (1) elderly persons (n = 41), (2) formal caregivers (n = 40) and (3)
informal caregivers (n = 32). RESULTS: Activities within the International
Classification of Functioning domains mobility, self-care, and interpersonal
interaction and relationships were found to be the most problematic. CONCLUSIONS:
A distinct set of daily activities was identified that may threaten independent
living, but no single activity could be selected as the main activity causing a
loss of independence as it is often a combination of problematic activities that
is person-specific. Supporting the problematic activities need not involve a robotic solution.

Langue : ANGLAIS