Table 3.

Human flourishing in sampled literature*

Author(s) Title Year	Self-acceptance	Positive relationships with others	Personal growth	Purpose in life	Environmental mastery	Autonomy	Other dimensions/concepts/views of human flourishing	Participatory research
Moyle W, Bramble M, Jones C, Murfield J. Care staff perceptions of a social robot called PARO and a look-alike Plush Toy: a descriptive qualitative approach. 2018	Socially assistive robot (SAR) builds up patient's confidence (confidence to talk to other people as it helps them practice and develop social skills).	SAR most suitable for residents who were not socially active. SAR perceived as being of importance in building a community. SAR can improve loneliness.		SAR brings sense of belonging and warmness (since it gives patients a space where they feel loved). Patients knew that they needed to look care towards the SAR.	SAR contributes to safety (i.e., reduce falls by reducing aimless wandering). SAR increases patient's comfort (since it helps them feel safe).		Residents were often distressed but unable to express what was concerning them, and the SAR offered opportunities to distract residents during these times. SAR improves quality of life (as it reduced agitated behavior). SARs more useful and therapeutic (than plush toy) for agitation, and improving mood states and engagement. SARs, like all psychosocial approaches, should not be used as ‘a one size fits all’ approach to care. It is imperative that staff understand the needs of each resident.	No, but explores care staff perception.
Zuschnegg J, Paletta L, Fellner M, Steiner J, Pansy-Resch S, Jos A, Koini M, Prodromou D, Halfens RJG, Lohrmann C, Schüssler S. Humanoid socially assistive robots in dementia care: a qualitative study about expectations of caregivers and dementia trainers. 2021		Humanoid SAR improves communication/contact with others (e.g., enable telephone calls, provide company). Interpersonal relationship established during a conversation should not be lost.			Humanoid SARs help in avoiding danger (e.g., recognize danger, organize help).	Humanoid SARs help with daily activities (e.g., remind of appointments, household obligations). Humanoid SARs' ability to help patients with eating/drinking (e.g., help cook). Humanoid SARs aid with mobility/body posture (e.g., give reminders/instructions for physical exercise). Humanoid SARs have positive affect on maintaining patient's independence for as long as possible. The humanoid SAR is valued as “helping people to help themselves”.	SARs provide entertainment through recreational activities (e.g., provide music).	No, but considers expectations of informal caregivers, nurses, and dementia trainers.
Moyle W, Jones C, Murfield J, Thalib L, Beattie E, Shum D, Draper B. Using a therapeutic companion robot for dementia symptoms in long-term care: reflections from a cluster-randomised controlled trial. 2019		PARO can increase opportunities for communication				PARO can be facilitating the person with dementia to make their own choices and, ultimately, to have their rights upheld and respected. PARO can be upholding participants’ freedom of choice.	SAR can be beneficial and a source of enjoyment.	No.
Law M, Sutherland C, Ahn HS, MacDonald BA, Peri K, Johanson DL, Vajsakovic DS, Kerse N, Broadbent E. Developing assistive robots for people with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia: a qualitative study with older adults and experts in aged care. 2019		The robot provides companionship and reduce loneliness, psychological stress (even stress hormones and blood pressure). The importance of attending human-like aspects of social robots – as it seemed to appeal to participants.			The robot helps assist with patient's safety (as it augments the ability to care for oneself and can respond to emergencies).	SAR helps with patient's autonomy because with the help of SAR, older adults are able to live independently in their own homes safely (as people tend to like/want/need to stay in their own homes as long as possible).	SAR helps monitoring health and well-being. The robot helps with reducing anxiety and providing reassurance with respect to decisions and behaviors (i.e., helps with reorientation and scheduling the day).	No.
Wangmo T, Lipps M, Kressig RW, Ienca M. Ethical concerns with the use of intelligent assistive technology: findings from a qualitative study with professional stakeholders. 2019		Intelligent Assistive Technology (IAT) is complementary to human contact and empathy who are critical to provide clinically effective and morally acceptable care.			Need for safe and effective implementation of IATs. IATs help uphold patient's dignity (how the patient should not be deceived by intelligent assistive technology: the moral importance of preventing deception should be subordinated to the moral obligation to improving the patients’ wellbeing).	IATs improve patient's autonomy (by increasing their independence and prolonging their independent living primary. Also, preventing harm (non-maleficence) and promoting overall good (beneficence)). IATs must facilitate patient's consent (prioritizing the patient to take the decision first, but since mental capacity can be impaired, then focus on the surrogate being aware of the preferences of the patient). IATs should help to foster patient's privacy (suggesting that data collection should be restricted to what is necessary for clinical purpose and called for clearer conditions for data access and storage). “Knowing older adults’ decisions about intelligent assistive technology use before the progression of their cognitive impairment would be a clinically effective and ethically sound way to empower them and respect their (future) autonomy”.		No, but adopts a user-centered approach.
Casey D, Barrett E, Kovacic T, Sancarlo D, Ricciardi F, Murphy K, Koumpis A, Santorelli A, Gallagher N, Whelan S. The perceptions of people with dementia and key stakeholders regarding the use and impact of the social robot MARIO. 2020	Patients liked that MARIO was non-critical and commented that it helped them forget they had dementia (which in turn made them feel more confident, supported and they enjoyed the experience).	Social participation is a critical contributing factor to successful and healthy aging. SAR has the potential to enhance human-human relationships in the healthcare context (as it improves social engagement and stimulate conversation). SAR provided companionship, connectivity, and can be a way of combating loneliness, social isolation (bringing entertainment and diversion).	Patients who use social robots in a patient-centered manner are perceived as having higher emotional intelligence themselves.		Improving the speech recognition and adding monitoring and assessment devices for people with dementia to keep them healthy and safe was an important part of developing SAR.	SAR increases patient’s autonomy (with an individualized menu that gives the person with dementia the opportunity to select what they wished to do, gave them choices). Autonomy is considered a core attribute of the quality of care of older people.		Study adopts a user-led design and personalized applications in the development and usage of SAR.
Moyle W, Bramble M, Jones CJ, Murfield JE. "She had a smile on her face as wide as the great Australian bite": a qualitative examination of family perceptions of a therapeutic robot and a plush toy. 2019		PARO can provide stimulation, comfort and companionship, thus reducing anxiety and improving wellbeing for the resident.	PARO is encouraging residents’ verbal and visual engagement with the object, improving their expressions of pleasure and reducing their neutral affect, and having some effect in reducing agitation.	The families were impressed with how the animal robot could provide a sense of responsibility and a connection to a familiar pet, such as a dog. (Family description of patient: “She really enjoyed having it there … she was looking forward to it every day. She felt responsible for looking after it”).			All family members focused their involvement on meaningful activities and mutual experiences to alleviate psychological triggers, to help keep their relative calm, provide stimulation, and something to love. Qualitative design chosen to explore the individual family member’s perception of the PARO robotic seal compared to the plush toy, and his/her experience in relation to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.	No, but considers family members' perceptions.
Abbott R, Orr N, McGill P, Whear R, Bethel A, Garside R, Stein K, Thompson-Coon J. How do "robopets" impact the health and well-being of residents in care homes? A systematic review of qualitative and quantitative evidence. 2019	Robopets increase the residents’ confidence.	Robopets have shown positive benefits in terms of companionship and engagement (since interacting with Robopets induced verbal responses with residents talking to the robopets either directly or with others. Patients considered it a friend). Robopets appeared to awaken memories which increased communication with care staff and family members. The positive resident responses to the Robopet enhanced the care home environment and were perceived by staff as being important in “building a community”. Talking to the Robopet gave residents confidence to talk to others, it served as an “icebreaker” between staff and residents, and staff were overheard joking and laughing.	Positive behavioral responses were demonstrated through residents touching, petting, stroking, holding and hugging, which brought reductions in depression and improvements in behavioral problems. Residents appeared to be more alert when they participated in activities with the robopet. Staff were concerned that using robopets may have evoked feelings of infantilization for residents.	Robopets were described as a way of entertaining and diverting residents who were “restless or sad” and that they could provide an opportunity for “humour and play”.	The Robopet's vocal sounds could overstimulate residents and “elevate rather than diminish agitation”.	Robopets brought comfort to residents at the end of life by helping them to verbalize their feelings.	Robopets provided residents with an opportunity to communicate and confide their innermost thoughts, feelings and even frustrations. Qualitative results report numerous positive aspects, improvements and general appreciation of how Robopet can help residents. Quantitative results focusing on the same/similar concepts showed that there is no significant increase in almost any of the spheres that were analyzed, either compared to regular treatment (no PARO or plush toy) or treatment with the plush toy.	No, but considers experiences of staff, residents and family members.
Pu L, Moyle W, Jones C. How people with dementia perceive a therapeutic robot called PARO in relation to their pain and mood: a qualitative study. 2020		Participants perceived PARO as a friend whom they could talk to, and this helped them to feel relaxed and comforted when holding PARO. PARO could be a companion for residents who were isolated and socially inactive, as they described they felt lonely living in residential aged care facilities. PARO gives them something to talk to and be comfortable about, and not be shy or anxious. PARO was ideal for people who were unable to engage in activities.	Residents perceived the therapeutic effects of PARO a distraction as it may bring them joy and happiness (modulating their mood as well as assisting in pain reduction).	PARO gave residents something to care about and look forward to.	Individual preferences of the social robot intervention should be considered for better outcome.		Deception since the fact that it is a robot and not an actual being could be considered a way to trick patients (but it could be argued that improvement in the mood of people with dementia could outweigh the risk).	No, but considers how people with mild to moderate dementia and chronic pain perceive PARO.
Jøranson N, Pedersen I, Rokstad AM, Ihlebaek C. Change in quality of life in older people with dementia participating in PARO-activity: a cluster-randomized controlled trial. 2016		PARO achieves tactile stimulation through petting which stimulates communication with PARO and other participants. PARO evoked affection and acted as a social mediator.	The side-effects of psychotropic drugs to be potentially harmful for older people with dementia and are often associated with poorer quality of life, which can be lowered through use of the robot.			Being able to perform activities in daily living in Norwegian nursing homes (NH) is seen as a valuable skill for people with dementia and thus robot helps being more independent.	The participants’ experiences with PARO produced positive emotions thereby preserving quality of life, despite them having severe dementia. Maintaining relations with others and having control of life are aspects that influence quality of life in dementia (mild to moderate = more independent). Independent living in nursing homes is observed as: being able to move freely, enjoy meals and participate in perceived meaningful activities and the ability to communicate and maintain social contact with other residents, staff and family visitors.	No.
Lane GW, Noronha D, Rivera A, Craig K, Yee C, Mills B, Villanueva E. Effectiveness of a social robot, "PARO," in a VA long-term care setting. 2016		The use of PARO resulted in significantly decreased loneliness, and greater active verbal and physical engagement (versus the canine control group).	Raters observed statistically significant decreases in negative patient behavioral states (as defined by observed anxiety, sadness, yelling behavior, isolative behavior, reports of pain, observations of wandering/pacing behavior) when comparing the sample groups before and after the PARO intervention. There is evidence that use of the PARO robot in both group and individual settings reduces depression and improves cognitive functioning in demented elderly as well as reduces behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.				Getting nursing staff to use such a device may have been a challenge, because of any number of reasons (staffing issues, training issues, organizational issues, technophobia).	No.
Kang HS, Makimoto K, Konno R, Koh IS. Review of outcome measures in PARO robot intervention studies for dementia care. 2020			The improvement of cognition might not be a primary goal of short-term PARO or animal-assisted interventions. However, assessing participants’ cognition is necessary to evaluate cognitive impairment and select the scales appropriate for their cognitive function. PARO interventions were effective at bringing about changes, especially in positive affect, including pleasure and smiling. Outcomes of stress and anxiety were evaluated with physiological and biological changes. (The effects of PARO interventions on medication usage showed significant beneficial effects with lesser medication use).				Effects on quality of life in a PARO group were significant in all three studies, revealing that quality of life may be an appropriate indicator for assessing the effects of PARO interventions. (It is desirable to report the total and subtotal scores of quality of life to capture the global effect and specific changes in the different dimensions of quality of life, since it comprises some sub-factors: tension, well-being, and sadness). When planning PARO interventions, intervention types (individual or group), group size (3 is optimal), and session duration should be considered because of their possible impacts on outcomes.	No.
Cruz-Sandoval D, Favela J. Incorporating conversational strategies in a social robot to interact with people with dementia. 2019		The results provide evidence that the use of conversational strategies is effective to increase the communication between persons with dementia and a social robot (these results support the feasibility of the use of conversational strategies to enhance the person with dementia-robot interaction).						No.
Russo A, D'Onofrio G, Gangemi A, Giuliani F, Mongiovi M, Ricciardi F, Greco F, Cavallo F, Dario P, Sancarlo D, Presutti V, Greco A. Dialogue systems and conversational agents for patients with dementia: the human-robot interaction. 2019		It is important to examine the role of emotions in social robots, and to identify the need to provide the robot with the ability to perceive, interpret and convey emotions.			The need to design an interface able to deal with potential problems of human speech, including sentence fragments, interruptions and false starts (identify the vocabulary and syntactic structure that characterize the utterances of people with mild cognitive impairments relatively slow speech rate, closed-ended questions, repetitions and small verification questions, a reduced syntactic complexity and sentences with few clauses). The approach and techniques are adopted for each stage and their effectiveness largely depend on the target domain, the intended users and the specific tasks that the system has to support.		The goal is to enable a natural, context-aware, adaptive and intelligent interaction: achieving such a complex goal requires a multidisciplinary approach with a contribution from different scientific disciplines (linguistics and cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence and software engineering).	No.

Author(s) Title Year	Self-acceptance	Positive relationships with others	Personal growth	Purpose in life	Environmental mastery	Autonomy	Other dimensions/concepts/views of human flourishing	Participatory research
Mordoch E, Osterreicher A, Guse L, Roger K, Thompson G. Use of social commitment robots in the care of elderly people with dementia: a literature review. 2013		Therapeutic robotics are useful in engaging people to interact with each other, producing a calming effect, and providing companionship, motivation and enjoyment. The use of commitment robots to meet the companionship needs of elderly people with dementia requires monitoring and careful thought.	Solutions to the issues related to the management of the symptoms of dementia must be monitored for undue infantilization.				While professional and family caregivers know that symptoms of dementia can be difficult to manage and that innovative solutions are needed, interventions and solutions to these issues must be monitored for deception and tendencies to overly reduce human contact.	No.
Chu MT, Khosla R, Khaksar SM, Nguyen K. Service innovation through social robot engagement to improve dementia care quality. 2017		Not only the capacity for verbal conversation is needed between robot and person with dementia, but emotion recognition and body language synthesis are also key in encouraging rich engagement. Social robots make people smile and laugh as well as causing them to be open to talk and interact with robot and/or people around them (maintain person with dementia as socially active). Social robots are capable of generating positive reactions from person with dementia and can encourage person with dementia to actively engage with their community in residential aged care facilities. The findings show significant improvements for interacting with other staff and/or residents as a result of stimulation provided by the robots.					To identify improvements in caregiving, staff reactions divided into two categories: less involvement in participants’ activities and more attention to monitoring participants’ reactions. Broader goal should not only be to provide older person with dementia with innovative services in a social-technological context, but also to improve the quality of life for person with dementia.	No.
Ienca M, Wangmo T, Jotterand F, Kressig RW, Elger B. Ethical design of intelligent assistive technologies for dementia: a descriptive review. 2018		IATs enable elderly adults with dementia to maintain, restore, reacquire, or support social relations and the capacity to interact with the external social, digital and natural environments. Promoting patient autonomy and reducing caregiver burden through intelligent technology may cause a loss of human contact.			Care-related principles should be given thought like invasiveness, intrusiveness and obtrusiveness of IATs into the intimate and private sphere. IATs improve safety (i.e., the protection from or reduced likelihood of danger or injury). Affordability/fair access to technology for all should also play a part in the intelligent assistive technology design.	IATs uphold independence, ageing-in-place, and user-centeredness (“the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level”).	The language used to describe the six thematic families was partly grounded in the principles of biomedical ethics and adapted to the specific context of assistive technology for dementia. In addition, since addressing values in design in a principled manner is believed to increase the benefits and reduce the harms of a technology among a stakeholder group, it is possible that the low prevalence of ethical values in intelligent assistive technology design might negatively affect the use of intelligent assistive technologies by people with dementia. IATs could favor the delivery of personalized, adaptive and patient-centered care solutions. (Not only help fulfill the wishes of patients but also empower them and improve their quality of life). Care-related principles such as empathy, dignity and the protection of vulnerability should be given thought.	No.
Obayashi K, Kodate N, Masuyama S. Measuring the impact of age, gender and dementia on communication-robot interventions in residential care homes. 2020		Communication robots can facilitate older people’s social activities irrespective of stage of dementia and age. They work effectively, particularly for those with moderate dementia.					In terms of age, the study found that the older cohorts benefited more and the study found that people with moderate/severe dementia showed greater improvement than those with mild dementia. The introduction of communication robots to older people’s care, in both the facilities and the home environment, can have a positive impact, irrespective of differences between women and men. The results showed much improvement in residents’ quality of life, evaluated by the change of “performance” in five priority care goals, which were selected from the International Classification of Functioning category of “Activities and Participation”.	No, but discusses value of participation.
Arthanat S, Begum M, Gu T, LaRoche DP, Xu D, Zhang N. Caregiver perspectives on a smart home-based socially assistive robot for individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. 2020		Involving caregivers’ significant others in the process of set up and programming will be crucial for sustainable use. SARs decreased frustration, stress, and relationship strain through increased social interaction.		SARs are encouraging various meaningful leisure pursuits.	Providing safety, emergency assistance, and basic reminders were viewed as integral functions. The importance of privacy, reliability and cost (idea to lease instead of buy) in the development and implementation of socially assistive robots. The need to review the set-up of the robot in accordance to the physical layout of the home, driveability of the robot, technical support and training needs.	SAR enhances autonomy by helping with daily tasks.	The framework posits that the following constructs are precursors to technology adoption: effort expectancy (ease of use), performance expectancy (perceived benefit of use), facilitating conditions (organizational and technological supports for users), technology anxiety (apprehension about use), social influence (positive opinions of others about technology), perceived trust (security of data), and perceived cost. The technology will have limited scope during the very late or very severe stage of the disease.	No.
Góngora Alonso S, Hamrioui S, de la Torre Díez I, Motta Cruz E, López-Coronado M, Franco M. Social robots for people with aging and dementia: a systematic review of literature. 2019		Intervention with PARO has potential to increase willingness of staff members to communicate and work with elderly person with dementia, especially those with mild/moderate dementia, who express their demand of communication more than those with severe dementia.	Effective for the improvement of cognitive function, particularly executive and memory functions through the different activities and engagement with PARO. There are positive emotional expressions and a tendency to laugh more for person with dementia and their interaction with PARO, improving their moods.			PARO can be perceived by the user as social entities with communication capabilities designed to facilitate daily activities and, therefore, support independent life = support in home management (maintain personal and domestic supply; monitor and provide ambulatory support; and provide communication and social interaction).	During the time of connivance with the robot, the saliva cortisol level was decreased, nocturnal sleeping hours tended to increase, and the difficulty in maintaining sleep tended to decrease. Developers must work with social scientists, health professionals, and people user to meet the anticipated needs and help adopt better technologies.	No.
Pino M, Boulay M, Jouen F, Rigaud AS. “Are we ready for robots that care for us?” Attitudes and opinions of older adults toward socially assistive robots. 2015		Persons with mild cognitive impairment tended to perceive a robot companion as a distraction, a confidant, and a company for lonely people. One of the most preferred functionalities for SAR was communication services to keep an active social life (e.g., video calls, email).	One of the challenges of SAR design is to reach a balance between functionality, resulting from the technical configuration, and enjoyment, supported by the physical and “psychological” attributes of the robot (e.g., appearance, voice, social capabilities, personality). One of the most preferred functionalities for SAR was cognitive support applications to compensate cognitive impairment (e.g., locating lost items, task reminding). SARs may increase the risk of infantilization (i.e., disempowering effect associated with the conception of elderly with dementia reverting back to childhood) and deception (i.e., being induced to believe that robots are something that they are not) are issues of concern for older adults.	The importance of having access to stimulating and meaningful activities adapted to person with dementia, dealing with social withdrawal and apathy of care recipients, which can be achieved with SARs.	SAR improves safety at home, reducing caregiver’s stress and burden. The importance of cost, privacy, usability and ergonomics in developing assistive robots. Some of the most preferred functionalities for SAR were: risk prevention and healthcare applications (e.g., falls detection, management of critical situations), and applications for supporting everyday tasks (e.g., online grocery shopping, journey planning, simplified Internet access).	Participants with mild cognitive impairment focused on cognitive and functional support services intended to improve their autonomy. These results confirm findings from previous studies in which healthy elderly persons have expressed their unwillingness to imagine having an assistive robot (when healthy, might not be able to imagine themselves as impaired so just react towards the robot as a symbol of losing their autonomy). The use of a robot would no longer be possible in the most advanced stages of the disease.	Caregivers and participants with mild cognitive impairment agreed about the fact that the robot should not only be useful, but also pleasant and fun to use.	No, but considers acceptance among three groups of older adults living in the community: persons with mild cognitive impairment, informal caregivers of persons with dementia, and healthy older adults.
Scoglio AA, Reilly ED, Gorman JA, Drebing CE. Use of social robots in mental health and well-being research: systematic review. 2019		The majority of studies focused on providing comfort and companionship to study participants. In particular, the available data indicate that SARs may be a useful tool for increasing socialization and decreasing aggression in dementia populations.	Interacting with the robot could result in changes in well-being or mental health by alleviating symptoms of dementia.				There can be symptom reduction related to mood and positive quality of life changes after robot interactions. The majority reported positive increases in mood, comfort, or stress reduction.	No.
Robaczewski A, Bouchard J, Bouchard K et al. Socially assistive robots: the specific case of the NAO. 2021		Studies presented show a positive impact of the NAO when interacting with people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment. (It is easy to use, and it can either be a cognitive trainer or a companion; increases sociability and decreases loneliness).	NAO decreased apathy, delusions and irritability. The two studies conclude that a robot-assisted approach would be a great avenue as a non-pharmacological intervention (since it enhances engagement from the users and improves global neuropsychiatric symptoms when a robot is included in therapy sessions).				NAO enhances mood.	No.
Gustafsson C, Svanberg C, Müllersdorf M. Using a robotic cat in dementia care: a pilot study. 2015		Justocat awoke the participants’ curiosity and interest in communicating with the world outside the dementia care home. Justocat increased well-being, reduced loneliness, having something/ someone to touch, and dedicated and tolerant love were expressed as benefits of using the robotic cat. Justocat can be prompting dialogue between relatives and the participants, and providing a diversion from usual conversations.	Justocat can be experienced as “something else to think about,” something that could break the vicious circle of constant repetitive behavior. Users expressed pride, joy, and mutual well-being in the pleasure of using it in their daily lives and care. Justocat is an opportunity for emotional release, enabling the expression of positive emotions towards the robotic cat and engaging in humor and play. There can be a sedative, soothing, and comforting influence of the robotic cat, especially during periods of anxiety. (Can be used instead of sedative medication).		It is important to think about safety in the development of assistive robots.		The first stage of the study focused on challenging behaviors and quality of life among the participants. One of the participants may have cared too much about the cat; it became a worry. The robotic cat creating too much responsibility for the participant. For some individuals with dementia, an interactive robot can increase well-being and quality of life. It is easy to use and that it encouraged care. Specific regard should be paid to the risk of ridicule or giving the individual with dementia the impression that the robotic pet is a living pet.	No, but considers reactions of individuals with dementia and their relatives' and professional caregivers' experiences.
Darragh M, Ahn HS, MacDonald B, Liang A, Peri K, Kerse N, Broadbent E. Homecare robots to improve health and well-being in mild cognitive impairment and early stage dementia: results from a scoping study. 2017					Activities should be individualized (tailored to preferences or hobbies). Homecare robot could be programed with the personal activity preferences and level of support appropriate for the individual’s stage of cognitive impairment. The importance of home safety in implementation of the robot.	A broad, recurring theme was help with the daily schedule (provide regular reassurance and reminders). Depression is a noted predictor of functional disability in those with mild cognitive impairment and dementia, and depression and anxiety can be obstacles to autonomy and well-being (and should thus be monitored).	Delirium can serve as an early warning system as it often manifests before other symptoms of acute illness, and early recognition of physical illness can prompt appropriate treatment, which can all be done with the robot.	No.
Demange M, Lenoir H, Pino M, Cantegreil-Kallen I, Rigaud AS, Cristancho-Lacroix V. Improving well-being in patients with major neurodegenerative disorders: differential efficacy of brief social robot-based intervention for 3 neuropsychiatric profiles. 2018			A pleasant experience might increase the subjective perception of well-being by improving positive effects and diminishing negative ones (primary outcome = emotional wellbeing).		It can be stigmatizing/intrusive for the user to have a robot gathering data in a personal environment. An interview about the patient’s history would be necessary to prevent negative reactions during or after the interaction with PARO.		Qualitative part of the study: Expression of emotional feelings, Interpretation of PARO’s behavior, triggering memories. Hence, in spite of PARO’s positive impact, its use might be constrained by attitudes towards robots. A pet robot could provide an experience that buffers stress reactions. Targeting the reduction of negative feelings judged to be a useful measure especially in patients in medium- or long-stay facilities, who may suffer from pain or/and other chronic illness. There is a higher impact of the intervention in agitated patients compared to depressed patients. (PARO’s effect on agitated patients was attributed to the acute calming effect of tactile stimulation and to a reduction of cortisol levels).	No.
Hung L, Liu C, Woldum E, Au-Yeung A, Berndt A, Wallsworth C, Horne N, Gregorio M, Mann J, Chaudhury H. The benefits of and barriers to using a social robot PARO in care settings: a scoping review. 2019		PARO has been found to improve social engagement in individuals with dementia, increased activity participation, and promote more spontaneous communication. PARO gave older people with dementia (including males) confidence to talk with others around them: “The men don’t really tend to take with the babies a lot, whereas they did with the seal”.	PARO provided a sense of belonging and warmness: “when I saw them interacting with it… you saw their loving personality came back”. The intervention group used significantly less psychotropic medication compared with the control group.		Fair opportunities to access technology use should be an important goal for governments. Key barriers to the adoption of the technology include: cost and workload, infection concerns, and stigma and ethical issues.		PARO may result in reducing staff stress and caregiver burnout. Benefits in psychological and behavioral symptoms of dementia were more pronounced in those with less cognitive impairment and what is clinically significant (what matters to patients, families, and clinicians) may not be captured by statistical significance. PARO increase quality of life by reducing dementia symptoms. PARO may increase the risk of infantilizing and dehumanizing.	No.
Bradwell HL, Edwards KJ, Winnington R, Thill S, Jones RB. Companion robots for older people: importance of user-centred design demonstrated through observations and focus groups comparing preferences of older people and roboticists in South West England. 2019		Older people wanted interactivity for companionship, fun and reduced loneliness through responsiveness.	Older people demonstrated preference for interactive devices over non-interactive alternatives (provided a sense of achievement when a device appeared responsive, such as “I got the cat to roll over!”).				It is further likely the roboticists appreciated the advanced technical capabilities of PARO, but our study suggests such sophistication may be unnecessary for older people. Participants commented on preferring cats or dogs, as what they had ‘always had’. (Reminiscence, greater relatability). One patient had a experience negative because the robot reminds them of dead cat. In contrast, unfamiliar forms were perceived by older people as ‘a toy’ and more infantilizing. Some roboticists, on the other hand, raised concerns on overstimulating older people.	No.

*Content for dimensions of human flourishing extracted based on the reading and analysis of the full manuscript. Content is pasted from original papers with little or no changes. Explanatory comments indicated in italics