Simple and Steady Interactions Win the Healthy Mentality: Designing a Chatbot Service for the Elderly

Although suicide among older adults is increasing in severity in aging Korea, older adult depression and anxiety, which are two crucial factors affecting suicide in this population, are not effectively addressed by the status quo. Existing products and services emphasize physical needs and still lack a user-oriented approach. Moreover, offerings for mental health care are costly and exclude potential users from the development process, thus inhibiting older adults from having better access to those services. To address this problem, we designed and developed a mental health care chatbot, Yeonheebot, to decrease anxiety and depression among older adults. Yeonheebot initiates conversations regarding daily care for the well-being of older adults and provides features related to their interests as initiatives for using the mental health care chatbot. To examine if a short-term, yet repeating conversation with the agent could help reduce anxiety and depression among older adults, we conducted a 2-week field study with 25 users. Results indicate the constant use of Yeonheebot decreased levels of anxiety and depression by 36% and 18%, respectively. Our research implies that simple and repeating interactions could help Korean older adults cope with anxiety and depression.