Voice2Connect: Informing the Design of Smart Speakers for Social Connectedness in Low-Income Older Adults

项目摘要/摘要 低收入人群中社会孤立和孤独的高风险日益引起公共卫生的关注 老年人的收入及其对他们的寿命和整体福祉的影响。社会问题 隔离尤其与低收入老年住房(LISH)居民有关，他们经常患有多发性慢性病 贫困和残疾，缺乏财政和社会资源，以及有限的社会网络。因此，有一个 迫切需要开发创新的方法来缓解居住在Lish的老年人的这些问题。声音- 操作智能扬声器有可能减少这一人群中的社会孤立和孤独，因为 例如，通过与其他人联系、发送有关社交活动的提醒或提供 对话代理。免提语音控制为人们提供了更好的可访问性和可用性 识字率低、视力障碍、行动不便或灵巧性差。我们建议研究如何 智能扬声器可以满足利什独居老年人的社交需求。我们 将使用迭代的以用户为中心的设计，并采用混合方法，结合参与式 方法：焦点小组访谈、功能和心理社会健康问卷调查。的具体目标 本研究包括：(1)确定社交隔离体验、用户需求、用户情境和偏好 与在英语环境中使用智能扬声器进行社交连接有关，(2)评估老年人 (智能扬声器用户和非用户)和利益相关者对智能扬声器在家中使用的态度 促进社会参与，重点是感知的有用性和技术的有用性，以及(3) 在老年人和利益相关者中确定潜在的实施障碍和隐私问题。 利益攸关方将包括住房工作人员(N=10)和卫生保健专业人员(N=6)，提供 为利什居民提供健康服务。老年人(N=36)将组成六个焦点小组，并参加一系列 三次焦点小组会议，他们参与以用户为中心的设计活动，以确定潜力 智能扬声器功能，可以支持社交连接的需求。他们的想法和想法将是 用于开发低保真原型和每个原型的使用方案。在原型和场景之后 发展，我们将通过Focus寻求老年人、住房工作人员和医疗保健提供者的意见 组，这将被用来改进原型。改进后的原型将在老年人身上进行验证 参与者。我们将使用主题分析和归纳编码的方法来分析焦点小组访谈 成绩单。描述性统计将用于分析从老年人收集的问卷数据和 利益相关者。这项研究的发现将为我们未来构建智能扬声器算法的研究提供参考 以及可促进基于智能扬声器的创新社交连接规划的功能 在利什语中对老年人的干预。

Project Summary/Abstract There is a growing public health concern regarding the high risk of social isolation and loneliness among low- income older adults and its resulting impact on their longevity and overall well-being. The issue of social isolation is particularly relevant to low-income senior housing (LISH) residents who often have multiple chronic conditions and disabilities, lack of financial and social resources, and limited social networks. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop innovative approaches to mitigate these issues in older adults living in LISH. Voice- operated smart speakers have the potential to reduce social isolation and loneliness in this population, for example, by connecting with other people, sending a reminder about social activities, or providing a conversational agent. The hands-free voice control provides improved accessibility and usability for people with low literacy, vision impairment, mobility limitation, or poor dexterity issues. We propose to examine how smart speakers can support the needs of social connectedness among older adults living alone in LISH. We will use an iterative user-centered design and employ a mixed-methods approach, incorporating participatory methods, focus group interviews, and functional and psychosocial health questionnaires. The specific aims of this study are: (1) to determine experiences of social isolation, user needs, user context, and preferences related to the use of smart speakers for social connectedness in the LISH setting, (2) to evaluate older adults (smart speaker users and non-users)’ and stakeholders’ attitudes towards the in-home use of smart speakers for promoting social engagement, with a focus on perceived usability and usefulness of the technology, and (3) to identify potential implementation barriers and privacy concerns among older adults and stakeholders. Stakeholders will include housing staff members (N=10) and health care professionals (N=6) providing wellness services to LISH residents. Older adults (N=36) will form six focus groups and take part in a series of three focus group sessions in which they participate in user-centered design activities to identify potential smart speaker features that can support the needs of social connectedness. Their thoughts and ideas will be used to develop low-fidelity prototypes and scenarios of use for each prototype. After prototype and scenario development, we will seek input from the older adults, housing staff, and health care providers through focus groups, which will be used to refine the prototype. The refined prototypes will be validated with the older adult participants. We will use a thematic analysis and inductive coding method to analyze focus group interview transcripts. Descriptive statistics will be used to analyze the questionnaire data collected from older adults and stakeholders. Findings from this study will inform our future research where we build smart speaker algorithms and functionalities that can facilitate the planning of innovative smart speaker-based social connectedness interventions for older adults in LISH.