A Single-Arm Interventional Trial of Pepper- Robot Delivered Cancer Education for Adults With Intellectual Disability

Summary

Individuals with Intellectual disability face numerous barriers to cancer education, awareness and screening, including communication challenges, anxiety, and a lack of accessible educational resources. Traditional methods often fail to meet their unique learning needs, contributing to lower screening rates , delayed diagnoses and poorer outcomes..

Socially assistive robots, have demonstrated effectiveness in delivering interactive, engaging, and tailored education, helping individuals with cognitive impairments better understand medical procedures and the importance of preventive care.

The study investigators propose to conduct a pilot single arm clinical trial with a semi humanoid robot to deliver cancer awareness education to adults with intellectual disability attending a disability day service in Ireland .The semi humanoid robot will be programmed to engage in 2 way communication about the cancer related educational content that is uploaded on its system.

.Approximately 25 adults with ID will receive the robot led educational intervention addressing both breast and colorectal cancer awareness and screening. This a pragmatic pilot study to inform a future larger controlled clinical trial Our overall objective is to Improve breast and colorectal cancer awareness knowledge level among adults with ID receiving a robot-delivered education intervention

Conditions

• Cancer Awareness and Prevention Education
• Breast Cancer Awareness
• Intellectual Disabilities (F70-F79)

Interventions

OTHER

Robot delivered Education

Two Pepper Robot educational sessions , each approx. 10-15 minutes in duration delivered within a 2-week window, to small groups (2-5) or individually if needed, to people with intellectual disability Breast cancer awareness and breast examination training will be delivered via the robot pepper. Participants will use the breast examination mannequin and also the breast awareness shower card to enhance learning about performing self breast -examination Colorectal cancer awareness information and red flag symptoms will also be delivered via pepper

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Brothers of Charity Services Galway Ireland

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University College Hospital Galway

  collaborator OTHER

• National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Veronica McInerney, RN,PhD · University of Galway

• Aoife Lowery, MB,FRCS,PhD · University of Galway

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-05-01

Primary Completion

2026-07-30

Completion

2026-09-30

Countries

• Ireland

Study Locations