Investigating the Usability of Voice Assistant-Based CBT for Age-Related Depression

Abstract

To combat the global shortage of mental health services, new solutions - such as computerized therapy options - have to be found. While research in this field has been ongoing for several decades and approaches such as chatbot-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have already shown to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression for younger adults, voice assistant-based (VA-based) approaches have thus far not been investigated deeply. However, especially for elderly people with depression VA-based systems could yield benefits - such as the avoidance of physical accessibility issues. Therefore, we propose the design of a VA-based system capable of delivering selected methods from CBT to elderly users with depression in order to investigate its usability. To assess the usability of the conceptualized system in comparison to a chatbot-based approach we conducted a randomized controlled A/B testing experiment with 14 participants. Results indicate a good usability and acceptance of the designed system and a preference for the delivery of CBT-methods via voice assistant rather than via chatbot, especially among elderly participants.

Voice Assistant-Based CBT for Depression in Students: Effects of Empathy-Driven Dialog Management

“…On sample level, a SUS score above average and a CSQ-I score above mean were obtained, indicating a high usability and acceptance of the proposed application. Those results support other research indicating that VA technology seems suitable for delivering psychotherapy digitally [4,32]. Nevertheless, here presented application differs from those proposed within other studies.…”

“…Thereby, it addresses the problem of insuffcient treatment options and provides more versatile possibilities of use. Striegl et al (2022) [32] also proposed a VA-based application which does not require users to receive therapy as a preliminary for its use. However, this application was intended to be used by elderly individuals suffering from depression whereas the application proposed here is intended to be used by students.…”

“…However, this application was intended to be used by elderly individuals suffering from depression whereas the application proposed here is intended to be used by students. Furthermore, as Striegl et al (2022) [32] did not investigate the infuence of empathetic DM on users' usability ratings, they only equipped their VA with rudimentary empathetic capabilities.…”

Evaluation of a Newly Developed Transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Group to Promote Healthy Aging Among Older People with HIV: Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

“…This protocol paper described the development, Adaptation, and pilot RCT of the CHAMP intervention for PWH who are over 50 years-old. The conception of this trial stemmed from the strong emerging evidence of the utility of transdiagnostic, multicomponent CBT approaches for mitigating age-related health decline [70][71][72] and the mechanisms (eg, inflammation) underlying these health disparities among OPWH. [73][74][75] The CHAMP intervention targets inflammation, in part, by focusing on traditional and contemporary transdiagnostic CBT skills (eg, cognitive restructuring, activity scheduling, mindfulness, and self-compassion) [46][47][48]52 to help reduce psychological distress, and health risk behaviors.…”

A Voice-Based Personal Assistant for Mental Health in Kreol Morisien

“…Conversational agents have also been integrated into healthcare for mental health [20][21][22], to prevent suicidal behavior [23], and for age-related depression [24]. However, most of these technologies have been developed for wellresource languages such as English, and adapting them to new languages under resources such as Kreol Morisien comes with challenges and typically requires language work such as developing audio datasets and training new speech recognition algorithms.…”