UNRAQ—A Questionnaire for the Use of a Social Robot in Care for Older Persons. A Multi-Stakeholder Study and Psychometric Properties

Slawomir Tobis, Agnieszka Neumann-Podczaska, Sylwia Kropinska and Aleksandra Suwalska
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Slawomir Tobis: Department of Occupational Therapy, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-781 Poznan, Poland
Agnieszka Neumann-Podczaska: Chair and Department of Palliative Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 61-245 Poznan, Poland
Sylwia Kropinska: Chair and Department of Palliative Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 61-245 Poznan, Poland
Aleksandra Suwalska: Department of Mental Health, Chair of Psychiatry, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-572 Poznan, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: (1) Background: while there exist validated measures to assess the needs of older people, there are comparatively few validated tools to assess needs and requirements for the use of robots. Henceforth, the aim of the study is to present and validate such a tool. (2) Methods: The study group included 720 subjects (mean age 52.0 ± 37.0, 541 females) who agreed to fill the Users’ Needs, Requirements, and Abilities Questionnaire (UNRAQ). The validation part of the study included 125 persons. (3) Results: the acceptance of the robot was good in the whole group. The social functions were rated worse than assistive ones. A correlation was found between the scores of social and assistive functions. The respondents claimed that older adults were not prepared to interact with the robot and not very good at handling it, and were sceptical about their willingness to learn to operate the robot. The Cronbach alpha value for the whole questionnaire was 0.95 suggesting excellent internal consistency, and the ICC value of 0.88 represents excellent agreement; (4) Conclusions: We observed a good overall acceptance of the robot across the studied group. There is considerable demand for the use of a social robot in care for older people.

Keywords: social robot; assessment tool; older adults; stakeholders; care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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