Robodog ‘Could Help In Care Homes’

A robotic dog could be the answer to staving off loneliness for people in care homes who can not have a real pet, new research has shown.

While having a pet has been shown to be beneficial for the wellbeing of older people, for care homes that can not accommodate animals, a robotic pet could do just a well.

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, researchers at Saint Louis University produced a study that surveyed the effects on care home residents of having a real dog around compared to a robotic animal.

Some 38 older people in care homes were either visited by Sparky, a real dog, once a week for 30 minutes over a seven-week period, Aibo, a robodog, for the same amount of time or neither companion.

Both the elderly people who were visited by Aibo and Sparky reported less loneliness than those who received visits from neither.

“The most surprising thing is they worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments,” said Dr William A Banks, professor of geriatric medicine at Saint Louis University.

“For those people who can’t have a living pet but who would like to have a pet, robotics could address the issue of companionship,” he added.

Dr Banks suggested that the robotic dog could be adapted to help look after older people who do not need much care, by giving reminders on when to take medication, for example.