Objective: Assess the feasibility of using commercially available smart speakers to provide exercise activities that provide interactive feedback to individuals with Parkinson’s.

Background: A growing body of evidence suggests that regular physical activity may slow progression of some key indicators of health-related QOL and mobility in PD (1). However, individuals with Parkinson’s are 1/3 less active than peers (2), potentially inhibiting adherence to exercise activities among this population. In addition to providing direct intervention to key areas of deficit such as mobility and speech, dual task activities provide challenging and engaging activities that may influence adherence. They also have the secondary benefit of mimicking the types of cognitive and motor demands common in daily activities.   Delivering dual task activities via commercially available “smart speakers” such as Amazon Alexa and the Google Home presents the opportunity to provide engaging activities with an interactive interface that’s capable of providing feedback while monitoring performance and collecting actionable data.

Method: Our primary goal was to assess the feasibility of providing dual task exercise activities to individuals with Parkinson’s using “smart speakers” to provide interactive content while tracking performance. First, we developed a set of dual-task exercise activities that incorporate the current strengths of commercially available smart speakers while targeting key areas of deficit. During a structured interaction with exercise activities delivered on an Amazon Alexa, participants were assessed based on ability to utilize the user interface as well as exercise performance. At the conclusion, subjects were queried regarding satisfaction, ease-of-use & related topics.

Results: 13 individuals with Parkinson’s (H&YI-III) were recruited for 1:1 assessment over the course of 2 days.  Users indicated satisfaction with their interactions with the exercise activities. Positive feedback included comments regarding cognitive stimulation and novelty of the activity. Negative feedback indicated some difficulties with this emerging interface.

Conclusion: This program is feasible. The rapidly expanding ecosystem of smart speaker devices is an attractive vector for delivering activities. The additional vocal effort required to produce satisfactory interactions with the device also provides compelling ancillary benefits for this population.

References: 1) Rafferty MR, Schmidt PN, Luo ST, Li K, Marras C, Davis TL, Guttman M, Cubillos F, Simuni T (2017) Regular exercise, quality of life, and mobility in Parkinson’s disease: A longitudinal analysis of national parkinson foundation quality improvement initiative data. J Parkinsons Dis 7, 193–202. 2) van Nimwegen, M., Speelman, A.D., Hofman-van Rossum, E.J.M. et al. J Neurol (2011) 258: 2214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-011-6097-7

« Back to 2019 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/interactive-dual-task-exercises-delivered-via-smart-speaker-a-feasibility-study/