# Impact of a Novel Socially Assistive Robotic Architecture on Engaging Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, and Related Dementia in Long Term Care Settings

> **NIH NIH R01** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $389,022

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
This is an administrative supplement to a currently awarded study, Impact of a Novel Socially Assistive Robotic
Architecture on Engaging Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Related
Dementia in Long Term Care Settings (R01AG062685). Apathy is common in persons with AD and ADRD with
prevalence rates up to 72%. It is associated with further cognitive decline, functional deficits, reduced quality of
life, social isolation, and increased mortality. Apathy imposes significant burden on LTC staff and negatively
impact quality of care, staff satisfaction and turnover. Since few pharmacologic options exist, a major strategy is
to foster older adults’ engagement in social, physical and cognitive activities, primarily those that are multimodal
in nature. However, these interventions often require significant personnel time and resources, a major concern
given the current nursing shortage and high turnover among LTC nursing personnel. The Centers of Medicare
and Medicaid Services mandates LTC facilities to provide meaningful engaging activities for residents, which
can be resource intensive and are difficult for many US LTC settings. The currently awarded study focuses on
the use of an intelligent socially assistive robot (SAR) based architecture, called ARIA (Adaptive Robot-mediated
Intervention Architecture), as an approach to engage older adult residents suffering from apathy. This
interdisciplinary proposal is directly aligned with the NIA goals of understanding and developing effective
interventions using smart technology to reduce the burden of age-related diseases and address the special
caregiver needs of those caring for persons with dementia (PWD). This multi-phase, multi-site, mixed methods
clinical trial will systematically examine responsiveness and engagement among persons with MCI or dementia
to two types of SARs (humanoid and animal), its effect on cognitive, physical and social function as well as the
impact of SARs on informal and formal caregivers with a goal towards future scalability and sustainability. The
specific aims of the proposed research are to compare the effect of usual care (UC) group to UC+ARIA group
on reducing apathy among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), mild dementia, or moderate
dementia and to identify barriers and facilitators to SAR implementation across sites to address future scalability
and sustainability. This study will contribute to the development of improved intelligent technology as an effective
approach to engage older PWD with the long term goal of enhancing function and quality of life. This
administrative supplement application is in response to the unforeseen and unavoidable consequences of the
COVID-19 pandemic on long term care settings that has resulted in significant delays in study deployment,
increased time and effort for long term care site recruitment, and increased time and effort in conducting the
study from originally...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10938878
- **Project number:** 3R01AG062685-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** LORRAINE C MION
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $389,022
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-05-01 → 2026-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10938878

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10938878, Impact of a Novel Socially Assistive Robotic Architecture on Engaging Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, and Related Dementia in Long Term Care Settings (3R01AG062685-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10938878. Licensed CC0.

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