Gwanak-gu Resolves Dementia Patient Care Gaps with 'AI Speaker Smart Home Care'

South Korea's elderly suicide rate has been found to be the highest among OECD member countries. Most seniors experience feelings of depression and loneliness due to aging, retirement, and the independence of their children.

Gwanak-gu (District Mayor Park Junhee) operates an integrated care service for seniors with dementia and mild cognitive impairment called the ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) Speaker Smart Home Care’.

The ‘AI Speaker Smart Home Care’ is a project that supports AI speakers for one year to help seniors with mild dementia, who are in care blind spots due to reasons such as living alone, conveniently engage in ▲cognitive learning ▲emotional stability ▲health management at home.

This service began operating in July 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to alleviate loneliness among seniors living alone due to restrictions on outings and activities and to provide various information.

Currently, 94 people are using this service, and the number of users is increasing every year.

The AI speaker helps enhance seniors' cognition by utilizing dementia prevention content such as ▲emotional conversations ▲emotional support through companionship services ▲weather information provision ▲music listening.

In particular, starting this year, cognitive training will be strengthened by providing the ‘Dementia Prevention Brain Spark Quiz’ once a week through a mobile platform, allowing seniors to solve problems and check answers alone at home.

The Gwanak-gu Dementia Safety Center continuously monitors the frequency, intervals, and content of seniors' AI speaker usage.

As a result, last year’s main consumed content was in the order of ▲music services (48.3%) ▲daily life information (22.1%) ▲emotional conversations (11.5%) ▲cognitive training (6.8%).

Analysis of the ‘emotional conversation’ content showed that the main language used was ‘happiness and psychological well-being (89%).’ Additionally, 85% of users evaluated AI speaker use as ‘enjoyable and helpful in daily life,’ confirming that AI speakers have a practical impact on alleviating loneliness and depression in seniors’ daily lives.

Furthermore, pre- and post-tests conducted on participating seniors showed ▲a 1.6-point increase in cognitive screening tests ▲a 2.8-point decrease in subjective memory decline assessments ▲a 2.0-point decrease in the shortened geriatric depression scale, demonstrating that AI speakers are actually effective in improving dementia.

In addition, the Dementia Safety Center provides customized feedback to seniors through phone calls and visits, and conducts on-site checks if risks are detected.

District Mayor Park Junhee said, “I hope that the ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) Speaker Smart Home Care,’ with its various functions, will help ensure the safety of seniors with dementia and delay the progression of severe dementia,” adding, “We will continue to strive to eliminate care blind spots and improve the quality of life for residents.”

For consultations and applications related to ‘AI Speaker Smart Home Care,’ please contact the Gwanak-gu Public Health Center Dementia Safety Center.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.