Humanoid Robot vs Treatment as Usual for Loneliness

NCT05423899 · Status: WITHDRAWN · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Last updated 2025-04-16

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The investigators are aiming to compare the effects of a humanoid robot intervention to treatment as usual, on loneliness and mental health outcomes in older adults living in long-term care, through an assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Grace Robot

The Grace robot was designed by Awakening Health/Hanson Robotics for healthcare settings and to interact with the elderly and those isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Grace is a robot with a human-like appearance, which can move, actively listen, engage in conversation and react appropriately to human emotions. Intervention activities will mostly consist of active listening and general discussions about topics of interest (e.g. hobbies, music). The participant will also have the option of other types of interactions with the robot, including robot-led meditation, robot-led light exercise, listening to music and singing. Because loneliness is a subjective experience and does not have a standardized solution, this is a personalized intervention approach. We anticipate that each older adult participant will have different needs and wishes when interacting with the robot, which will allow for a more natural interaction with the robot.

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as Usual

The treatment as usual active control group will not receive the robot intervention. The investIgators have deliberately chosen the participating long-term care (LTC) homes due to their high frequency of social interactions for their clients as part of their routine care (e.g. one-on-one and group activities, family interaction, exercise groups) compared to most LTC homes settings, making TAU an active control.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Lady Davis Institute

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
60 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-09-01
Primary Completion
2023-03-01
Completion
2023-03-30

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05423899 on ClinicalTrials.gov