Abstract
Introduction: Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) is one of the chronic diseases, which require special attention, and a wide range of management activities. It is alarming to notice that the T1DM among the children has been increasing in the recent years, which requires special attention. The recent research shows that the use of social robots can help in fulfilling all the requirements like insulin checkup, awareness, education etc. for managing the diabetes among the children. Considering these aspects, this paper investigates the role of social robots in improving diabetes management among the children using a systematic review of recent studies conducted in this specific area.
Methods: A systematic review approach was used in this study. Four electronic databases including PubMed, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect Elsevier and Scopus are considered for searching the papers from the social, engineering and medical perspectives. More than 3400 titles and abstracts of various papers in these databases were reviewed.
Results: Only six papers fitted the criteria that focuses on the use of social robot in enhancing the diabetic children management OR diabetic children awareness or both. The review has found that the use of social robots could contribute in improving the diabetic children management and awareness.
Conclusion: The number of existing studies in measuring the impact of social robot is very narrow and there is a big need to expand and evaluate the use of social robot on large sample of diabetic children.