Shade Marcia Y, Yan Changmin, Jones Valerie K, Boron Julie Blaskewicz
College of Nursing, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE.
College of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
Pain Manag Nurs. 2025 May 5. doi: 10.1016/j.pmn.2025.04.003.
Pain consists of biological, psychological, and sociological elements that are influenced by the aging process. Pain management in older adults may be improved by multimodal strategies that impact the biopsychosocial model. Chronic musculoskeletal pain in older adults is often linked with social isolation which limits the use of in-person nonpharmacologic therapies. The purpose of this study was to compare two interactive routines delivered with artificial intelligence (AI) on pain severity, pain interference, and other outcomes in older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain that live alone.
Adults 60 years of age and older were recruited, enrolled, and randomly assigned to the conversational voice assistant-standard or the conversational voice assistant-enhanced (CVA-E) group. Participants interacted with routines twice a day and as needed for 12 weeks in their homes. Self-reported pain and pain-related outcome data were collected at baseline and postintervention.
A sample of N = 50 participants engaged with the interactive voice assistant routines twice daily. After 12 weeks, the participants self-reported decreased scores in pain interference, loneliness, and depression. Self-reported depression scores were significantly reduced in both intervention groups. There was a statistically significant decrease in self-reported loneliness reported by older adults in the CVA-E group.
The experience of pain can be detrimental to older adults, especially when they live alone or are socially isolated. The preliminary findings from this study suggest that prescribed routines delivered with an AI voice assistant may encourage older adults' engagement with nonpharmacologic biopsychosocial strategies, and influence pain interference in older adults. There is a need to continue exploring personalized and biopsychosocial tailored routines delivered with technology and their impact on pain and other pain-related outcomes.
疼痛由受衰老过程影响的生物、心理和社会学因素组成。针对生物心理社会模型的多模式策略可能会改善老年人的疼痛管理。老年人的慢性肌肉骨骼疼痛通常与社会隔离有关，这限制了面对面非药物治疗的使用。本研究的目的是比较两种通过人工智能（AI）提供的互动程序对独居的患有慢性肌肉骨骼疼痛的老年人的疼痛严重程度、疼痛干扰及其他结果的影响。
招募60岁及以上的成年人，将其纳入研究并随机分配到对话语音助手标准组或对话语音助手增强（CVA-E）组。参与者每天在家中与程序互动两次，并根据需要进行12周。在基线和干预后收集自我报告的疼痛及与疼痛相关的结果数据。
N = 50名参与者的样本每天与互动语音助手程序互动两次。12周后，参与者自我报告疼痛干扰、孤独感和抑郁得分降低。两个干预组的自我报告抑郁得分均显著降低。CVA-E组中老年人报告的自我报告孤独感有统计学意义的下降。
疼痛经历可能对老年人有害，尤其是当他们独居或社会隔离时。本研究的初步结果表明，通过AI语音助手提供的规定程序可能会鼓励老年人参与非药物生物心理社会策略，并影响老年人的疼痛干扰。有必要继续探索通过技术提供的个性化和生物心理社会定制程序及其对疼痛和其他与疼痛相关结果的影响。
