The effect of PARO robotic seals for hospitalized patients with dementia: A feasibility study.

Robotic seals have been studied in long-term care settings; though, no studies of patients with dementia in the acute care setting have been reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of PARO interventions for hospitalized patients with dementia, determine physiological effects and describe social-affective interactions. Using a prospective descriptive design with pre-post PARO intervention physiological measurements, we studied 55 participants who received up to five 15-min PARO interventions. The PARO was favorably accepted for 212 (95%) of the 223 PARO interventions. Differences in pre- and post-physiological measures for mean arterial pressure, pulse, respiration, oxygenation, stress, and pain levels were evaluated using Wilcoxon Signed Rank test with statistically significant pre and post differences (p=<0.05); however, the differences were not clinically significant. Participants (95%) demonstrated beneficial PARO interactions with the most frequent interactions being speaking and petting. The PARO shows promise for enhancing social and affective responses for hospitalized patients with dementia.