Designing Animal Robot Recreation to Increase the Amount of Communication for Elderly People with Dementia

Abstract

In Japan, the increase in the number of elderly people with dementia due to the aging of society has become a major social problem. This study designed a recreation using an animal robot to increase the amount of communication among elderly people with dementia. Then, we conducted the proposal recreation at a nursing home for elderly people with dementia to measure the effectiveness of the proposed recreation. The effectiveness of the recreation was measured not only by increasing the amount of communication, but also by evaluating the emotions of the elderly people with dementia while they were participating in the recreation. Lawton’s Philadelphia Geriatric Center Affect Rating Scale ("ARS") was used in the evaluation of emotions. The results confirmed that recreation using the animal robot increased the amount of communication among elderly people with dementia, and increased positive emotions among elderly people with dementia.