Droid Audio Visual Educator-Diabetes Nutrition (DAVE-DN) Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Worldwide, demand for health care services far outpaces the availability of staff. The use of robots in healthcare has advanced in recent years as robots are seen as a viable solution to address the shortage of healthcare staff. We propose the use of a humanoid robot to provide basic nutritional education to patients with diabetes in the waiting room, hence freeing up time for dieticians to address more complex issues. We hypothesize that use of this intervention will be more effective than the current standard of care i.e. A leaflet, in educating and empowering patients with diabetes. Methods: We conducted a single-centre, randomized controlled trial to determine whether a humanoid robot would improve patient’s knowledge of nutrition. The primary outcome of the trial is improvement in patient knowledge score based on 36 items from a validated nutrition questionnaire. Each patient’s prior knowledge of nutrition was assessed by a validated questionnaire prior to the intervention. Patients were randomized to current standard of care i.e. physician-led education plus a leaflet (n=40) or standard of care plus Droid Audio Visual Educator (n=40). Following the trial, both groups had their knowledge of nutrition reassessed using the same validated questionnaire. The performance of patients in each group was compared and effectiveness of the intervention in improving education objectively determined. Results: A total of 90 patients underwent randomization. 10 withdrew before completion. The mean age was 53.7 years. The change in score in the intervention group was 3.2 of 36 points higher than control group on average (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.9 to 5.4; P= 0.006). Conclusions: This trial suggests there is potential for humanoid robots to deliver basic nutritional education Disclosure S.O'connor: None. J.Ong: None. B.Lim: None. S.Coleman: None. H.Worlikar: None. C.Connolly: None. S.E.Mcgarel: None. T.O'brien: None. D.T.O'keeffe: None. Funding Health Services Executive, Intern Network Academic Track