Health & Fitness - Robot eases loneliness as well as real dog

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Robot eases loneliness as well as real dog

ST. LOUIS (UPI) -- A U.S. study that compared a real dog with a robotic dog found the robot eased loneliness in nursing home residents as well as a real dog.

St. Louis University researchers said they compared how residents of three nursing homes interacted with Sparky, a living, medium-sized mutt; and Aibo, a doggie robot manufactured by Sony that looks like a three-dimensional cartoon.

Study leader Dr. William A. Banks divided 38 nursing home residents into three groups -- one group saw Sparky once a week for 30 minutes, another group had similar visits with Aibo, the robot and a control group saw neither the furry nor the mechanical critter.

The study participants were asked about loneliness when the study began and seven weeks later when the study ended.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, found the nursing home residents who received visits from real and robotic pooches felt less lonely and more attached to their canine friends than those who got visits from neither.

There was no statistical difference between whether the real or faux Fido did a better job easing loneliness and fostering attachments.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 02/26/2008

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