The Impact of Interaction Time and Verbal Engagement with Personal Voice Assistants on Alleviating Loneliness among Older Adults: An Exploratory Study

BACKGROUND

Loneliness in older adults is a critical issue that negatively affects their well-being. The potential of personal voice assistant (PVA) devices like Amazon's Alexa Echo in reducing loneliness is an emerging area of interest, but it remains under-researched.

OBJECTIVE

this study aims to investigate the effect of interaction time and verbal engagement with PVA devices on reducing loneliness among older adults living alone.

METHOD

In this experiment, individuals aged 75 and older (n = 15), living alone, were provided with Amazon Alexa Echo devices. They were instructed to interact with the device at least five times a day for a duration of four weeks. The study measured participants' loneliness levels using the UCLA loneliness scale both before and after the study. Additionally, the interaction time and verbal engagement with the device were measured by the total time of use and the total number of intentional commands spoken to Alexa during the four-week period.

RESULTS

The findings revealed that the total time spent interacting with Alexa was a significant predictor of loneliness reduction. A mediation analysis indicated an indirect effect, showing that the number of intentional commands spoken to Alexa contributed to loneliness reduction indirectly by increasing the total time spent with the device (verbal engagement → interaction time → loneliness reduction).

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that the key to reducing loneliness among older adults through PVA devices is not just initiating verbal interaction, but the overall time devoted to these interactions. While speaking to Alexa is a starting point, it is the duration of engagement that primarily drives loneliness alleviation.

Loneliness and Off-Topic Verbosity Among Young Adults and Older Adults

OBJECTIVES

Off-topic verbosity (OTV) refers to prolonged speech that derails from the initial conversational topic by including more loosely associated speech and becoming increasingly more unfocused and distant from the initial topic. Previous research has suggested that, among older adults, loneliness may be associated with greater OTV. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of the relationship between loneliness and OTV among young adults (n = 62) and older adults (n = 80).

METHODS

Participants completed a measure of loneliness and provided speech samples, which were transcribed and rated for OTV.

RESULTS

Results indicated some relationship between loneliness and tangentiality of speech, particularly among older adults.

DISCUSSION

Overall, loneliness may be associated with greater OTV in older adults, which could further explain the connection between increased loneliness and worse health outcomes in older adulthood.