Development of a system in self-training older adults for improving their eating and swallowing function

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K10830
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 58050:Fundamental of nursing-related
• Research Institution: University of Nagasaki
• Principal Investigator: Mieno Aiko 長崎県立大学, 看護栄養学部, 准教授 (60516293)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 山口 多恵 長崎県立大学, 看護栄養学部, 准教授 (00597776) ; 辺見 一男 長崎県立大学, 情報システム学部, 教授 (30238711)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 高齢者 / 咀嚼・嚥下機能 / 嚥下訓練 / コミュニケーションロボット

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Maintaining eating and swallowing function is important to prevent aspiration pneumonia, the leading cause of death among older adults. Eating and swallowing training can be preventing age-related decline in eating and swallowing functions. The purpose of this study is to develop a robot that enables older adults to perform eating and swallowing training alone and to verify its feasibility. The training program was implemented in a communication robot "Unibo" manufactured by Unirobot. To test the applicability of the robot, older adults attending a day care center in Japan were selected. Although none of the participants had previous experience using a life support robot like Unibo, all of them operated the robot easily and more than half of them were willing to continue training with this robot.

Free Research Field

高齢者看護

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本では、高齢者の肺炎による死亡数は増加しており、その中でも誤嚥性肺炎は最も多い死亡原因となっている。誤嚥性肺炎は老化に伴う咀嚼・嚥下機能の低下によっておこる。この高齢者の嚥下機能は身体面だけでなく精神面にも影響を及ぼす可能性が指摘されている。嚥下機能の維持のために、高齢者施設や病院などで食事前の嚥下訓練が実施されており、その効果が示されている。しかし、医療機関の介入を受けていない高齢者一人では訓練の継続が難しい。今回開発したシステムは電子機器に不慣れな高齢者でも簡単に操作でき、一人でも集団でも嚥下訓練を継続して実施できる手段の一つとなりうる。