The population of Korea is aging rapidly, and this has led to a care burden for caregivers. Without adequate caregivers to address the increased burden, people with significant disabilities and older adults with disabilities who have greatly reduced mobility are at risk. The aim of this study was to determine suitable types of care robots for care applications in Korea and formulate a strategy for a future care robot R&D plan through a user participation study. We categorized nine types of care robots that are suitable for the care needs in Korea. By adopting a mixed research methodology involving user participation, we conducted discussions with caregivers, care receivers, and other stakeholders under a public-private-people partnership model. We also identified five primary strategies for care robot R&D: (1) intensive investment to match the needs of people with very severe disabilities to care robot technologies, particularly for transfer, repositioning, toileting, and feeding; (2) translational research and technology development; (3) realization of smart-care through fourth industrial revolution (i.e., digital) technologies; (4) user-centered research with stakeholders; and (5) building of a care robot ecosystem. The formulated plan would be shared with other developers and clinical experts to drive development of suitable care robots.

Purpose :Cutting nails is an essential activity of daily living. In this study, a foot-operated safety nail clipper for people with stroke hemiplegia was developed in four phases using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. Materials and methods :A user was identified to develop a foot-operated, safe nail clipper for people with stroke hemiplegia (Phase 1). A single user repeatedly used the technology to determine necessary improvements (Phase 2). Then, the usability was evaluated by four people with disabilities (Phase 3) before the clipper was manufactured at multiple institutions to determine its reproducibility (Phase 4). Results :The foot-operated safe nail clipper was upgraded during each phase. The Version 2.0 comprises twenty 3D printing materials and five readily-available materials. Conclusions :A foot-operated safety nail clipper was developed for people with stroke hemiplegia. The number of parts increased as the device was upgraded via the use of 3D printing and available materials. Based on a small-scale usability test, the device was best suited for people with stroke hemiplegia. The assistive device was shared with the assistive technology open platform as an open source. The four-phased process can be used to develop appropriate assistive technology devices through the Makers Movement in the future.

Assistive device use has increased in recent years in Korea following the expansion of disability categories, increase in acquired disabilities, and an aging society. Although assistive devices can improve the quality of life by aiding social participation and removing physical restrictions, some devices are simply not used after users receive them via public distribution projects. Understanding assistive device usage after distribution is crucial to improve their service and supported products by disability type. This study constructed an interview questionnaire and interview guide for investigating the reason for (not) using the assistive device, and the necessity of assistive devices according to time point after disability. The aim was to establish a foundation for accumulating systematic and in-depth data. The interview questionnaire was developed primarily for frequent device users across 15 physical disability types. The terms used in the questionnaire were systematically defined, and interview items were derived based on assistive device-related questionnaires from the extant literature. The final interview questionnaire and guide were then refined after pilot test (N = 4) and expert (N = 2) consultations. The data accumulated by utilizing the interview questionnaire and interview guide developed in this study can improve the service support system for assistive devices by disability type and improvements by assistive devices in the future. This can help improve users’ quality of life by providing a more appropriate and enhanced assistive device.

Introduction: Stroke, one of the leading causes of death worldwide, leads to disability in most patients, posing a burden on society and families. Intensive rehabilitation in the early stages is the most effective method of minimising these disabilities. Home-based rehabilitation strategies have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional approaches, as highlighted during the coronavirus disease pandemic. Currently, no systematic reviews are available on the effects of home-based lower extremity rehabilitation systems in patients with stroke, or on the design specifications for their further development. Therefore, we present a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis to provide up-to-date evidence on this topic. Methods and analysis: The study search for this review will be conducted in October 2026 across five electronic databases—MEDLINE, CENTRAL, EMBASE, Web of Science and CHINAL—and will be supplemented by Google searches and manual screening of the reference lists of the finally included studies. The search strategy has been developed using relevant keywords such as stroke, lower extremity rehabilitation, robotics and virtual reality, and study selection, data collection and risk of bias assessment will be performed independently by two authors; if these yield different results, final decisions will be made after discussion with the third author. The risk of bias in the existing literature will be evaluated using appropriate tools and methods in accordance with the Cochrane group guidelines (eg, RoB 2, Risk of Bias in Nonrandomised Studies of Interventions). Moreover, the level of evidence presented by this study will be evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach. If feasible, we will conduct a meta-analysis using the RevMan Web version; otherwise, a narrative review will be presented. Ethics and dissemination: Since this study will be conducted without recruiting participants or using personal information, ethical approval and informed consent are not required (PROSPERO registration number: CRD 42024551398). Our proposed study will provide important evidence for policymakers, rehabilitation providers and system developers, and the results will be published in a journal and presented at conferences.

It is important to consider the individual characteristics of Assistive Technology Device (ATD) for assisting people with disabilities in their daily activities. A representative method is to consider the four basic elements of Human, Activity, Assistive Technology Device, and Environment when providing assistive technology services (HAAT model, Cook & Hussey, 2002). In this study, the factors affecting the ATDs required by the people with disabilities in Korea were analyzed by applying to the HAAT model. The top five ATDs with high need were extracted, and the factors influencing the need for the top five ATDs among people, activities, and environmental factors were analyzed by conducting binomial logistic regression analysis. As a result of the analysis, the top 5 ATDs most needed by the people with disabilities in Korea are cane, safety handle, powered wheelchair, electric scooter, and home modification. These results indicate that they mostly require ATDs for activities of daily living related to mobility and movement. Age, disability grade, and whether or not to use public transportation were analyzed as factors that had a statistically significant effect on the need for ATDs. The limitation of this study is that there is a limitation in generalizing the analysis results of this study because there is a possibility that sufficient information on ATDs may not be provided when conducting a fact-finding survey of the people with disabilities. Nevertheless, the results of this study suggest that it is necessary to apply appropriate ATDs considering factors such as disability type, living environment, and age. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data for the application of assistive devices suitable for the characteristics of the people with disabilities in Korea.

We aimed to gather evidence on the feasibility of using simulator-based driving assessments for prescribing powered mobility devices (PMDs). Therefore, we compared the driving characteristics of real driving and two types of simulated driving. Thirty participants with difficulty walking more than 100 meters independently were enrolled. We developed a full-cabin and desktop simulator and created driving scenarios that closely resembled a real driving route in a park. They participated in three separate driving sessions, each using a powered wheelchair, full-cabin simulator, and desktop simulator. The driving characteristics, such as driving distance, mean speed, and standard deviation (SD) of speed, were obtained and analyzed to assess differences and correlations. Statistically significant differences were found in the driving distance and the SD of speed, respectively. However, for the mean speed, there was no statistically significant difference among the three types of driving. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for the driving distance was 0.154, which was not statistically significant. However, for mean speed, the ICC was 0.752, indicating a strong correlation. The ICC for the SD of speed was 0.562, indicating a moderate correlation. We demonstrated that the two types of simulators have characteristics that are similar to real-world driving characteristics. The mean speed showed the highest similarity, and the SD of the speed showed a moderate degree of similarity. These results highlight the significant potential of employing simulator-based driving to evaluate the use of PMDs.