Use of a Social Robot in the Implementation of a Narrative Intervention for Young People with Cystic Fibrosis: A Feasibility Study

Young people with cystic fibrosis face significant physical discomfort and an extensive treatment burden that often includes lengthy hospital stays and increased risk for psychological distress. With many treatments being critically important, parents are often compelled to act as translators between the child patient and medical staff. An inadvertent consequence of this dynamic is that young patients can be hindered from freely discussing their personal experiences of cystic fibrosis (CF) and finding ways to ameliorate their distress. In similar situations, social robots (SR) have been shown to help overcome such hindrances. Two studies were conducted. An online study (N = 132) assessed young people’s views of potentially creating a storybook of their experiences with CF and interacting with a SR. Secondly, a feasibility study tested the use of an SR delivering an intervention for CF that has given significant reductions in anxiety—the Metacognitive Intervention of Narrative Imagery (MINI). Eight patients, aged 10–14 years, received three 1-h sessions and were assessed on anxiety, depression, and metacognitive beliefs. Participants showed improvements in anxiety and the metacognitive beliefs of negative meta-worry and superstition, punishment and responsibility, all with large effect sizes. Participants and parents rated the intervention and robot highly on favourability and usability. Participant ratings after interacting with the social robot were considerably higher than other young patients who only viewed a brief video of the robot, indicating conversing with the robot may improve their perception of it. These findings provide additional evidence of the MINI’s effectiveness in reducing anxiety and certain negative metacognitive beliefs. This study also provides preliminary evidence that there may be added benefits from using a social robot to implement the MINI.