Gwangju Dong-gu, Care Robot 'Hyodori' Shows Effectiveness in Overcoming Depression

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The AI care robot ‘Hyodori,’ distributed to elderly living alone and elderly couples with mild cognitive impairment (a pre-dementia stage), has been found to have a significant effect on overcoming depression among the elderly.

According to Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Im Taek) on the 6th, after distributing 20 units of the care robot ‘Hyodori’ to the target elderly last year, the depression index of the recipients significantly decreased from 9.7 points to 3.7 points, and the difficulty index in managing daily life (medication, meals, exercise) also dropped from 16.8 points to 10.2 points, achieving great results in self-health management.

‘Hyodori’ operates easily through simple touch and voice commands. It mainly provides elderly-customized health management services such as ▲daily life management (meal, medication, exercise alarms) ▲health care services (singing, companionship, exercise programs) ▲safety management through movement detection functions as an IoT lifestyle management care robot.

As the improvement effects from ‘Hyodori’ became significant, Dong-gu plans to distribute an additional 10 units of Hyodori this year to residents diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment among elderly living alone and elderly couples in the district, following last year’s distribution.

Im Taek, Mayor of Dong-gu, said, “The AI care robot Hyodori, introduced proactively, has shown great effectiveness in preventing dementia among the elderly,” adding, “Dong-gu, which is promoting various dementia policies such as the opening of Gwangju’s first dementia safety center, will continue to do its best in dementia prevention and health management so that the elderly can live happier lives.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.