Robot Use for Older Adults – Attitudes, Wishes and Concerns. First Results from Switzerland

Due to demographic change, the increasing shortage of skilled professionals in the care sector, and the desire of older adults to stay independent as long as possible, it is predicted that robots will be used more often in the future to support older adults. To achieve accepted solutions, the opinions and concerns of the population need to be considered. Studies so far have shown different results, focus on a specific type of robot, and there is little knowledge about the attitudes and concerns of the population regarding the general use of robots for older adults. Based on established models of technology and robot acceptance, a questionnaire was compiled. To gain nationwide representative data, the survey includes questions on different factors of robot acceptance, preferred appearance, preferred functions and field of application, as well as ethical considerations. Here, data for Switzerland is published for the first time and evaluated descriptively. So far, 189 participants answered the survey, 57.6% of them women. Most participants had a positive attitude towards robots and would personally use a robot. But some functions are judged to be more conceivable than others. The main ethical concerns were a lack of interpersonal contact or problems with data security. The data collection will continue to achieve representativeness and to provide an overview of the attitudes and concerns about the implementation of robots for older adults in Switzerland and will be the basis for later in-depth analyses.