Clinical trial · Interventional
A Single-Arm Interventional Trial of Pepper- Robot Delivered Cancer Education for Adults With Intellectual Disability
Pilot Single Arm Clinical Trial of Pepper, a Semi Humanoid Robot -Delivered Cancer Awareness and Education Intervention for Adults With Intellectual Disability
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Individuals with Intellectual disability face numerous barriers to cancer education, awareness and screening, including communication challenges, anxiety, and a lack of accessible educational resources. Traditional methods often fail to meet their unique learning needs, contributing to lower screening rates , delayed diagnoses and poorer outcomes.. Socially assistive robots, have demonstrated effectiveness in delivering interactive, engaging, and tailored education, helping individuals with cognitive impairments better understand medical procedures and the importance of preventive care. The study investigators propose to conduct a pilot single arm clinical trial with a semi humanoid robot to deliver cancer awareness education to adults with intellectual disability attending a disability day service in Ireland .The semi humanoid robot will be programmed to engage in 2 way communication about the cancer related educational content that is uploaded on its system. .Approximately 25 adults with ID will receive the robot led educational intervention addressing both breast and colorectal cancer awareness and screening. This a pragmatic pilot study to inform a future larger controlled clinical trial Our overall objective is to Improve breast and colorectal cancer awareness knowledge level among adults with ID receiving a robot-delivered education intervention
Conditions
Conditions (3)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breast Cancer Awareness | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Cancer Awareness and Prevention Education | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Intellectual Disabilities (F70-F79) | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robot delivered Education | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (1)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- ARM A
- description
- Each participant will receive at two ( or more if required) Pepper Robot sessions approx. 10-15 minutes delivered within a 2-week window, in small groups (2-5) or individually as needed. Breast cancer awareness and breast examination training will be delivered via pepper. Participants will use the breast examination mannequin and also the breast awareness shower card to enhance learning about performing self breast -examination Colorectal cancer awareness information and red flag symptoms will also be delivered via pepper
- interventionNames
- Other: Robot delivered Education
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Change in cancer awareness knowledge score range from pre- to post-intervention (immediate),
- timeFrame
- Before enrolment and post intervention -immediately after the final education session
- description
- Easy-read Knowledge Questionnaire (breast \& bowel awareness, 10-15 items each, pictorial supports, multiple choice/true-false.
Secondary outcomes (7)
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: 1. Adults (≥18 years) with an intellectual disability requiring any level of support needs. 2. Able to provide informed consent, or where capacity is limited, able to assent with decision support in line 3. Attending the disability service day center. 4. Sufficient receptive/expressive communication (with supports) to participate in interactive sessions Exclusion Criteria: 1 Severe sensory impairments that cannot be reasonably accommodated (e.g., profound hearing/vision loss without assistive solutions available for the session).
References
Publications (11)
- BACKGROUNDOrtigosa Quiles JM, Garcia-Banda Garcia G, Chellew K, Ponsell Vicens E, Riquelme Marin A, Nicolas Carrasco MP. Identification of degrees of anxiety in children with three- and five-face facial scales. Psicothema. 2013;25(4):446-51. doi: 10.7334/psicothema2012.287. PMID 24124776
- BACKGROUND10. Cithambara k, Corby, D., & Hartnett, L ., Healy S., Joyce, D (2023). Breaking Down Barriers: An Assessment of the Needs of Disabled People in Accessing Population-Based Awareness Services in Ireland. 10.13140/RG.2.2.26735.82085.
- BACKGROUND9. Desideri, L., Negrini, M., Malavasi, M. et al. Using a Humanoid Robot as a Complement to Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Pilot Study. Adv Neurodev Disord 2, 273-285 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-018
- BACKGROUND8. Feil-Seifer, D., & Matarić, M. J. (2011). Socially assistive robotics. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 3(1), 88-103.
- BACKGROUND7. Papadopoulos, C., Koulouglioti, C., Ali, S., & Manthorpe, J. (2020). Promoting cancer awareness uptake for people with intellectual disabilities. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1425
- BACKGROUND6. Jordan A. Mann, Bruce A. MacDonald, I.-Han Kuo, Xingyan Li, Elizabeth Broadbent,People respond better to robots than computer tablets delivering healthcare instructions, Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 43,2015,Pages 112-117,ISSN 0747-5632,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.10.029
- BACKGROUND5. Moyle, W., Jones, C., Cooke, M., O'Dwyer, S., Sung, B., & Drummond, S. (2017). Social robots helping people with dementia. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(23-24), 4765-4776
- BACKGROUND4. Mitchell, A., Sitbon, L., Balasuriya, S.S., Koplick, S., Beaumont, C. (2021). Social Robots in Learning Experiences of Adults with Intellectual Disability: An Exploratory Study. In: Ardito, C., et al. Human-Computer Interaction - INTERACT 2021. INTERACT 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12932. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85623-6_17
- Scassellati B, Admoni H, Mataric M. Robots for use in autism research. Annu Rev Biomed Eng. 2012;14:275-94. doi: 10.1146/annurev-bioeng-071811-150036. Epub 2012 May 9.