{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,16]],"date-time":"2026-01-16T04:33:39Z","timestamp":1768538019407,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,30]],"date-time":"2024-10-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1730246400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Vecna Healthcare company"},{"name":"MIT AgeLab"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Robotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>As a result of a rapidly aging population and the increasing prevalence of dementia among older adults, technological solutions are increasingly being considered to facilitate caregiving. This research investigates the perspectives of 20 caregiving dyads on VGo, a telepresence social robot with features designed to support caregiving. Care recipients (CRs), aged 65 and older, diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and related dementias, along with their primary caregivers (CGs), evaluated the robot through an online interview study. The interviews integrated informative videos showcasing VGo\u2019s features and functions. Insights from the interviews revealed diverse expectations, interests, and reservations. The majority of CGs and their CRs perceived the robot\u2019s features as beneficial. In particular, the voice command capability was appreciated as an alternative to using smartphones and as a way to manage home appliances. The community feature, however, did not align well with many participants\u2019 lifestyles, and participants had a number of suggestions to enhance the robot\u2019s notification function. Based on the interview results, the study offers a set of design recommendations for telepresence social robots in home caregiving contexts. This investigation highlights the promise of social robots in caregiving contexts and underscores the need for further improvements to ensure they fit users\u2019 needs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics13110160","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,30]],"date-time":"2024-10-30T10:49:52Z","timestamp":1730285392000},"page":"160","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Telepresence Robots in the Context of Dementia Caregiving: Caregivers\u2019 and Care Recipients\u2019 Perspectives"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Shabnam","family":"FakhrHosseini","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lauren","family":"Cerino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lisa","family":"D\u2019Ambrosio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0465-1858","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lexi","family":"Balmuth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8835-4190","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chaiwoo","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mengke","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joseph","family":"Coughlin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results. UN DESA\/POP\/2022\/TR\/NO, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Vespa, J., Medina, L., and Armstrong, D.M. (2020). Demographic Turning Points for the United States: Population Projections for 2020 to 2060. Current Population Reports, U.S. Census Bureau."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cristea, M., Noja, G.G., Stefea, P., and Sala, A.L. (2020). The impact of population aging and public health support on EU labor markets. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph17041439"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Sawyer, B., and Claxton, G. (2019). How Do Health Expenditures Vary Across the Population, Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.1186\/s12960-020-0448-3","article-title":"Physician workforce in the United States of America: Forecasting nationwide shortages","volume":"18","author":"Zhang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Hum. Resour. Health"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106","DOI":"10.1177\/0272989X14551641","article-title":"Quantifying long-term care preferences","volume":"35","author":"Guo","year":"2015","journal-title":"Med. Decis. Making"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T.B., and Layton, J.B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Med., 7.","DOI":"10.4016\/19865.01"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"455","DOI":"10.1071\/AH16038","article-title":"Social participation as an indicator of successful aging: An overview of concepts and their associations with health","volume":"41","author":"Douglas","year":"2016","journal-title":"Aust. Health Rev."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e91","DOI":"10.1002\/lim2.91","article-title":"A healthy lifestyle is a social lifestyle: The vital link between social connection and health outcomes","volume":"4","author":"Proctor","year":"2023","journal-title":"Lifestyle Med."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"AARP, and National Alliance for Caregiving (2020). Caregiving in the U.S., National Alliance for Caregiving."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Redfoot, D., Redfoot, L., and Houser, A. (2013). The Aging of the Baby Boom and the Growing Care Gap: A Look at Future Declines in the Availability of Family Caregivers, AARP Public Policy Institute."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Alzheimer\u2019s Association (2023). 2023 Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Facts and Figures, Alzheimer\u2019s Association."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jalz.2018.06.3063","article-title":"Racial and ethnic estimates of Alzheimer\u2019s disease and related dementias in the United States (2015\u20132060) in adults aged \u226565 years","volume":"15","author":"Matthews","year":"2019","journal-title":"Alzheimer\u2019s Dement."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2023, March 15). Dementia, Available online: https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/dementia."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Skufca, L., and Rainville, C. (2021). Caregiving Out-of-Pocket Costs Study, AARP Research.","DOI":"10.26419\/res.00473.001"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109","DOI":"10.5498\/wjp.v11.i4.109","article-title":"Use of technology and social media in dementia care: Current and future directions","volume":"11","author":"Shu","year":"2021","journal-title":"World J. Psychiatry"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lugrin, B., Pelachaud, C., and Traum, D. (2022). The Handbook on Socially Interactive Agents: 20 years of Research on Embodied Conversational Agents, Intelligent Virtual Agents, and Social Robotics Volume 2: Interactivity, Platforms, Application, ACM.","DOI":"10.1145\/3563659"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Breazeal, C., Dautenhahn, K., and Kanda, T. (2016). Social robotics. Springer Handbook of Robotics, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-32552-1_72"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e37","DOI":"10.1093\/geront\/gny046","article-title":"The effectiveness of social robots for older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies","volume":"59","author":"Pu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Gerontologist"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cruz-Sandoval, D., Morales-Tellez, A., Sandoval, E.B., and Favela, J. (2020, January 23\u201326). A social robot as therapy facilitator in interventions to deal with dementia-related behavioral symptoms. Proceedings of the 2020 ACM\/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Cambridge, UK.","DOI":"10.1145\/3319502.3374840"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"643","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-018-0471-x","article-title":"Factors affecting the acceptability of social robots by older adults including people with dementia or cognitive impairment: A literature review","volume":"10","author":"Whelan","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Hameed, I.A., Tan, Z.H., Thomsen, N.B., and Duan, X. (2016, January 24\u201328). User acceptance of social robots. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions (ACHI 2016), Venice, Italy."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pino, M., Boulay, M., Jouen, F., and Rigaud, A.-S. (2015). \u201cAre we ready for robots that care for us?\u201d attitudes and opinions of older adults toward socially assistive robots. Front. Aging Neurosci., 7.","DOI":"10.3389\/fnagi.2015.00141"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"152","DOI":"10.5898\/JHRI.2.1.McColl","article-title":"Meal-time with a socially assistive robot and older adults at a long-term care facility","volume":"2","author":"McColl","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Hum.-Robot. Interact."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"140","DOI":"10.1080\/10400435.2013.869703","article-title":"Acceptance and attitudes toward a human-like socially assistive robot by older adults","volume":"26","author":"Louie","year":"2014","journal-title":"Assist. Technol."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Moharana, S., Panduro, A.E., Lee, H.R., and Riek, L.D. (2019, January 11\u201314). Robots for joy, robots for sorrow: Community-based robot design for dementia caregivers. Proceedings of the 2019 14th ACM\/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Daegu, Republic of Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/HRI.2019.8673206"},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"12713","article-title":"Telepresence robots: Encouraging interactive communication between family carers and people with dementia","volume":"39","author":"Moyle","year":"2019","journal-title":"Australas. J. Ageing"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"565","DOI":"10.1007\/s12369-016-0366-7","article-title":"Social and assistive robotics in dementia care: Ethical recommendations for research and practice","volume":"8","author":"Ienca","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Soc. Robot."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"755","DOI":"10.1089\/tmj.2012.0026","article-title":"Reactions to a remote-controlled video-communication robot in seniors\u2019 homes: A pilot study of feasibility and acceptance","volume":"18","author":"Seelye","year":"2012","journal-title":"Telemed. e-Health"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104207","DOI":"10.1016\/j.nedt.2019.104207","article-title":"Use and impact of virtual reality simulation in dementia care education: A scoping review","volume":"84","author":"Hirt","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nurse Educ. Today"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1109\/MRA.2010.940151","article-title":"Children, the elderly, and interactive robots","volume":"18","author":"Sharkey","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"691","DOI":"10.1007\/s10551-008-9975-x","article-title":"Lying and smiling: Informational and emotional deception in negotiation","volume":"88","author":"Fulmer","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Bus. Ethics"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"398","DOI":"10.1109\/T-AFFC.2012.31","article-title":"Robots, love, and sex: The ethics of building a love machine","volume":"3","author":"Sullins","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Affect. Comput."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1207\/s15327752jpa6601_2","article-title":"UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3): Reliability, validity, and factor structure","volume":"66","author":"Russell","year":"1996","journal-title":"J. Pers. Assess."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"52","DOI":"10.1097\/01.NAJ.0000314810.46029.74","article-title":"The Lawton instrumental activities of daily living scale","volume":"108","author":"Graf","year":"2008","journal-title":"Am. J. Nurs."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"650","DOI":"10.1017\/S1041610210000074","article-title":"Development and validation of the Caregiver Guilt Questionnaire","volume":"22","author":"Losada","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. Psychogeriatr."},{"key":"ref_37","first-page":"20556683221101389","article-title":"An analysis of design recommendations for socially assistive robot helpers for effective human-robot interactions in senior care","volume":"9","author":"Robinson","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Rehabil. Assist. Technol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thordardottir, B., Malmgren F\u00e4nge, A., Lethin, C., Rodriguez Gatta, D., and Chiatti, C. (2019). Acceptance and use of innovative assistive technologies among people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers: A systematic review. Biomed. Res. Int., 2019.","DOI":"10.1155\/2019\/9196729"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"296","DOI":"10.1080\/15228835.2023.2292058","article-title":"Technology acceptance models from different viewpoints of caregiver, receiver, and care facility administrator: Lessons from long-term implementation using baby-like interactive robot for nursing home residents with dementia","volume":"41","author":"Yamato","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Technol. Hum. Serv."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Arning, K., and Ziefle, M. (2009). Different perspectives on technology acceptance: The role of technology type and age. HCI and Usability for e-Inclusion, Proceedings of the 5th Symposium of the Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society, USAB 2009, Linz, Austria, 9\u201310 November 2009, Springer. Proceedings 5.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-10308-7_2"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"W\u00f3jcik, D., Szczechowiak, K., Konopka, P., Owczarek, M., Kuzia, A., Rydlewska-Liszkowska, I., and Pikala, M. (2021). Informal dementia caregivers: Current technology use and acceptance of technology in care. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph18063167"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1873","DOI":"10.2147\/CIA.S268606","article-title":"Factors affecting the acceptability of technology in health care among older Korean adults with multiple chronic conditions: A cross-sectional study adopting the senior technology acceptance model","volume":"15","author":"Ha","year":"2020","journal-title":"Clin. Interv. Aging"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hou, G., Anicetus, U., and He, J. (2022). How to design font size for older adults: A systematic literature review with a mobile device. Front. Psychol., 13.","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2022.931646"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e04147","DOI":"10.1016\/j.heliyon.2020.e04147","article-title":"Impact of button position and touchscreen font size on healthcare device operation by older adults","volume":"6","author":"Yeh","year":"2020","journal-title":"Heliyon"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"727","DOI":"10.1080\/10447318.2014.924348","article-title":"Older adults\u2019 text entry on smartphones and tablets: Investigating effects of display size and input method on acceptance and performance","volume":"30","author":"Zhou","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Interact."}],"container-title":["Robotics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/13\/11\/160\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T16:23:52Z","timestamp":1760113432000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/13\/11\/160"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,30]]},"references-count":45,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,11]]}},"alternative-id":["robotics13110160"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/robotics13110160","relation":{},"ISSN":["2218-6581"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2218-6581","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,30]]}}}