Dementia is a degenerative illness that progresses, affecting mentally, emotionally, and psychologically the person with dementia as well as their informal caregivers, who in most cases are family members. One of the most frequently reported symptoms of dementia is repetitive questions and behaviors; these situations do not directly affect the person with dementia, but the informal caregivers start to experience the caregiver burden. Since there are no known cures for dementia, several technological interventions have been proposed to assist the person with dementia, entertain them, and in general increase their quality of life. While they might eventually help informal caregivers, they often put an additional burden on them, particularly since informal caregivers are often older adults, and might experience difficulties using novel technologies. Thus the importance of proposing technologies to help informal caregivers reduce emotional burdens is evident. We conducted a mixed-method study where three older adults interacted using the Amazon Echo device with the Alexa voice agent for 20 days. We used a single-subject research analysis for the quantitative information, and performed a qualitative analysis to the semi-structured interviews conducted with the participants. The findings suggest that the older adults experienced some difficulties using the device. However, they were able to use it during the study period and expressed their willingness to use it for a longer period of time to become more familiar with the interaction. The ubiquity and ease of use of smart speakers makes them an appropriate technological alternative to deploy interventions aimed at addressing caregiver burden.

痴呆症是一种不断进展的退行性疾病，会影响痴呆症患者及其非正式护理人员（大多数情况下是家庭成员）的精神、情感和心理。最常见的痴呆症症状之一是重复的问题和行为。这些情况不会直接影响痴呆症患者，但非正式护理人员开始承受护理负担。由于目前还没有已知的痴呆症治疗方法，因此提出了几种技术干预措施来帮助痴呆症患者、娱乐他们并总体上提高他们的生活质量。虽然它们最终可能会帮助非正式护理人员，但往往会给他们带来额外的负担，特别是因为非正式护理人员通常是老年人，并且在使用新技术时可能会遇到困难。因此，提出技术来帮助非正式护理人员减轻情感负担的重要性是显而易见的。我们进行了一项混合方法研究，三名老年人使用 Amazon Echo 设备与 Alexa 语音代理进行了 20 天的互动。我们对定量信息采用单主题研究分析，并对参与者进行半结构化访谈进行定性分析。研究结果表明，老年人在使用该设备时遇到了一些困难。不过，他们在学习期间能够使用它，并表示愿意更长时间地使用它，以更加熟悉交互。智能扬声器的普遍性和易用性使其成为部署旨在解决护理人员负担的干预措施的适当技术替代方案。