Loneliness Intervention: How Spending Increased Total Time with Amazon's Alexa Aids in Loneliness Reduction of Those 75 and Older

Authors

• Kathrine Johnson, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

Spring 3-2023

Document Type

Article

Citation

Johnson, K. 2023. Loneliness Intervention: How Spending Increased Total Time with Amazon's Alexa Aids in Loneliness Reduction of Those 75 and Older. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Comments

Copyright Kathrine Johnson 2023.

Abstract

Loneliness is a significant issue that impacts the livelihood, well-being, and overall health of the fastest-growing population on the globe: older adults. Effective use of personal voice assistant devices as a means for loneliness reduction is a highly unstudied, yet quickly growing, field of interest. The imminence of aging increases the urgency and highlights a global motivation for learning more about loneliness reduction. In this experiment, older adults (75+) living alone were provided Amazon Alexa Echo speakers and were instructed to interact with the device 5 times per day for 4 weeks, and as often or little as they desired for an additional 4 weeks. Participant loneliness was measured using the UCLA loneliness scale both before the trial, as a baseline, and following week 4, as a post-analysis. Following the trial, the total time of use (in minutes) and the total number of words spoken to Alexa were calculated for each participant and analyzed using a one-tailed Pearson’s r correlation predicting positivity. Results indicate that increased overall interaction time with the personal voice assistant, Alexa, does positively and significantly correlate to a larger reduction in loneliness over a 4-week trial period . Therefore, it can be understood that spending more time interacting with Alexa may be an effective way to increase loneliness reduction in the 75+ population.