Pilot testing a digital pet avatar for older adults
Open accessAbstract
Social isolation in older adults is a major public health concern. An embodied conversational agent (ECA) has the potential to enhance older adults' social interaction. However, little is known about older adults' experience with an ECA. In this paper, we conducted a pilot study to examine the perceived acceptance and utility of a tablet-based conversational agent in the form of an avatar (termed "digital pet") for older adults. We performed secondary analysis of data collected from a study that employed the use of a digital pet in ten older adults' homes for three months. Most of the participants enjoyed the companionship, entertainment, reminders, and instant assistance from the digital pet. However, participants identified limited conversational ability and technical issues as system challenges. Privacy, dependence, and cost were major concerns. Future applications should maximize the agent's conversational ability and the system's overall usability. Our results can inform future designs of conversational agents for older adults, which need to include older adults as system co-designers to maximize usability and acceptance.
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Previous pilot studies of the Care Coach avatar have demonstrated the ECA's usability and efficacy in home-dwelling older adults.
“Previous pilot studies of the Care Coach avatar have demonstrated the ECA’s usability and efficacy in home-dwelling older adults.”
From A Protocol-Driven, Bedside Digital Conversational Agent to Support Nurse Teams and Mitigate Risks of Hospitalization in Older Adults: Case Control Pre-Post Study (2019) · cites this paper as [26]
The Methods (Design; page not available) describe home use of the Care.Coach digital pet by ten older adults, and the Discussion reports companionship and perceived benefits. But the paper explores acceptance and usability, notes increasing usability challenges, and does not establish broad efficacy in home-dwelling older adults. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredExisting studies have generally evaluated the ease of use and acceptability of health technology, and they have specifically evaluated social agents as a tool for decreasing loneliness and social isolation in older adults.
“Existing studies have generally evaluated the ease of use and acceptability of health technology, and they have specifically evaluated social agents as a tool for decreasing loneliness and social isolation in older adults [25-29].”
From A Protocol-Driven, Bedside Digital Conversational Agent to Support Nurse Teams and Mitigate Risks of Hospitalization in Older Adults: Case Control Pre-Post Study (2019) · cites this paper as [26]
The Abstract and Discussion (page unavailable) describe a pilot evaluation of a conversational agent’s acceptance and usability among older adults. The Conclusions report companionship and enhanced social interaction, but the paper does not evaluate whether the agent decreased loneliness or social isolation. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe results of the previous pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of the Care Coach platform to improve clinically meaningful aspects of patient care in the home.
“The results of the previous pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of the Care Coach platform to improve clinically meaningful aspects of patient care in the home.”
From A Protocol-Driven, Bedside Digital Conversational Agent to Support Nurse Teams and Mitigate Risks of Hospitalization in Older Adults: Case Control Pre-Post Study (2019) · cites this paper as [26]
The Methods (Design) describe a three-month deployment of the Care.Coach digital pet in ten older adults’ homes, and the Results (Benefits) report perceived benefits, including companionship, reminders, and enhanced social interaction. The paper does not demonstrate improvement in clinically meaningful patient-care outcomes; its conclusions concern companionship and social interaction, while noting usability issues. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn a pilot study of home-dwelling older adults, Chi et al provided a qualitative perspective on utility and comfort with the Care Coach avatar; participants reported positive results in terms of companionship, social support, and health information.
“In a pilot study of home-dwelling older adults, Chi et al provided a qualitative perspective on utility and comfort with the Care Coach avatar presented in this paper [26]. Participants reported positive results in terms of companionship, social support, and health information.”
From A Protocol-Driven, Bedside Digital Conversational Agent to Support Nurse Teams and Mitigate Risks of Hospitalization in Older Adults: Case Control Pre-Post Study (2019) · cites this paper as [26]
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“Existing studies have generally evaluated the ease of use and acceptability of health technology, and they have specifically evaluated social agents as a tool for decreasing loneliness and social isolation in older adults [25-29].”
BackgroundJegundo, A. L., Dantas, C., Quintas, J., Dutra, J., Almeida, A. L., Caravau, H., Rosa, A. F., Martins, A. I., & Pacheco Rocha, N. (2020) · Technologies · doi:10.3390/technologies8030042 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chi, N.-C., Sparks, O., Lin, S.-Y., Lazar, A., Thompson, H. J., & Demiris, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chi, Nai-Ching
- Venue
- Geriatric Nursing
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-11
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 542-547
- ISSN
- 0197-4572 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5873948
- OpenAlex
- W2611866909
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 5.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (am, 399 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Geriatric Nursing (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health/National Institute for Nursing Research Aging and Informatics Training Program (T32NR014833)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1256082)
- Taiwan Ministry of Education Technologies Incubation Scholarship
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Keywords
- digital PET, embodied conversational agents, older adults, social isolation, technology acceptance, companion robots, usability, privacy concerns, technology dependence, social interaction
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Attitude to Computers, Communication, Female, Humans, Pilot Projects, Social Isolation, User-Computer Interface, Animal Assisted Therapy, Independent Living
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