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Problem Scenario

Last modified by Marlein Vogels on 2022/04/02 14:43

Background (repeated introduction section)

Decreased food consumption is commonly seen in people with dementia, leading to malnutrition, dehydration, decreased immune function, weight loss and less muscle strenght (Edahiro et al., 2012; "Poor appetite and dementia", 2022). Malnutrition is not only unhealthy for a person with dementia on the short term, but it has even been reported that malnutrition may influence the disease progression of people with Alzheimer's disease (Kigozi et al., 2021).
One of the major causes of this decreased food consumption is that people with dementia, especially when suffering from Alzheimer's disease, tend to forget to eat (Al-Anssari et al., 2021).
Assisting people with dementia and encouraging people with dementia to eat has been reported as a major burden for their caregivers (Edahiro et al., 2012). During mealtimes, people with dementia might become angry or agitated or even aggressive, increasing the burden on the caregivers even more ("Poor appetite and dementia", 2022).

Problem scenario

Peter and Catherine live together with Peter having moderate dementia. Catherine still works during the days, and she has club activities and friends she want's to meet sometimes in the evenings and weekends. This results in Peter being alone at home often, and this leads to problems as he frequently forgets to drink, and doesn't eat the meals prepared for him. When Catherine comes back, there's a good chance Peter will be dehydrated, which causes a lot of problems. However, when asked why he didn't drink and eat the meal left for him, Peter get's defensive and frustrated, increasing the tension between the two. All of this makes Catherine worry about leaving the home, and she has started skipping activities she would actually want to go to, decreasing her quality of life in turn.

Design scenario

When Catherine leaves for work, she leaves the robot on the dining table. During some times of the day, the robot starts a wellbeing discourse starting with a soft tune to not startle Peter. During the discourse it asks about Peter's state, and reminds him to drink. When meal time approaches, the robot gives a reminder to eat, asks some other questions and proposes to play music during the meal. When Catherine comes back from work, she finds Peter in good health, and can in a moment go to her weekly Bridge club meetup. Her friends have noticed that they see her more nowadays, and she seems happier too.

  1. Edahiro, A., Hirano, H., Yamada, R., Chiba, Y., Watanabe, Y., Tonogi, M., & Yamane, G. (2012). Factors affecting independence in eating among elderly with Alzheimer's disease. Geriatrics &Amp; Gerontology International, 12(3), 481-490. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1447-0594.2011.00799.x
  2. Poor appetite and dementia. Alzheimer's Society. (2022). Retrieved 2 April 2022, from https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/daily-living/poor-appetite-dementia#:~:text=A%20person%20with%20dementia%20may%20lose%20interest%20in%20food.,loss%20and%20less%20muscle%20strength.
  3. Al-Anssari, H., Al-Anssari, H., Abdel-Qader, I., Abdel-Qader, I., Mickus, M., & Mickus, M. (2021). Food Intake Vision-Based Recognition System via Histogram of Oriented Gradients and Support Vector Machine for Persons With Alzheimer's Disease. International Journal Of Healthcare Information Systems And Informatics, 16(4), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijhisi.295817
  4. Kigozi, E., Egwela, C., Kamoga, L., Nalugo Mbalinda, S., & Kaddumukasa, M. (2021). Nutrition Challenges of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias: A Qualitative Study from the Perspective of Caretakers in a Mental National Referral Hospital. Neuropsychiatric Disease And Treatment, Volume 17, 2473-2480. https://doi.org/10.2147/ndt.s325463