How Conversational Agents are Helping to Take Medications: Studying Reviews of Amazon Echo

Smart speakers, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, have been referred to as conversational agents embodied in smart speakers (CAeSS) since they assist users through a more natural and intuitive spoken interaction than the initial prototypes, which used strict keywords. For older adults in particular, studies have discovered that they are receptive to the use of speech to interact with technology, as this modality reduces the complexity of the system-human interaction, and so, they seem to offer an appropriate interaction mode for adults with chronic diseases adopt them. Our study aims to understand how CAeSS are used to support managing medication, especially by older adults, for this reason we conducted an exploratory study of 638 opinions made online by users of different versions of Amazon Echo that mentioned using them for their medication. The CAeSS are being used primarily to support behavioral strategies based on reminders for taking medications, indicated in 617 opinions (96.7%), moreover, to a lesser extent, they are used to support educational strategies, which include knowing more about their prescription regimens, reported in 5 opinions (0.9%). The results indicate that these devices are being widely adopted to support managing medication, as they are perceived as useful and easy to use by both patients and their families caregiver.