What does the literature say about the use of personal voice assistants in older adults? A scoping review

Abstract

Purpose

With ageing, people may experience loss of function which may be compensated for by using technology. This review aims to examine the range and extent of personal voice assistants used for older adults living in the community, their technology readiness level, associated outcomes, and the strength of evidence.

Methods

This study complies with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. The CINAHL, EMBASE, IEEE Xplore, MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were used to identify studies that explored the use of personal voice assistant technology with older adults living in the community.

Results

The search yielded 499 studies, 22 of which were included for final analysis. Consumer technologies (e.g., Amazon Alexa) were evaluated in 18 studies, while four studies evaluated novel technologies. Most of the studies exploring the use of personal voice assistants with older adults evaluated technology usability and acceptance. Personal voice assistants were most commonly used by older adults for setting up reminders, searching for information, and checking the weather. None of the included studies evaluated the effectiveness of the technologies' ability to improve the management of health conditions or to facilitate the functional capacity of older adults.

Conclusions

More research is needed to determine the possible impact of using personal voice assistants for older adults living in the community.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• The TRL for personal voice assistants is high.

• Personal voice assistants are currently being used by older adults for a range of activities including setting up reminders, searching for information, and checking the weather.

• Whether personal voice assistants can support older adults' ability to age in place is still unknown.

• The use of personal voice assistants in older adults is ripe for future enquiry and intervention-based research.

Keywords:

• Personal voice assistant
• older adults
• ageing in place

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 References marked with an asterisk are included in the scoping review.