In older adults, the use of artificial intelligence and natural language patterns (NLP) help discern degrees of loneliness, revealed a new proof-of-concept paper, published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, carried out by a team led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine.
"Most studies use either a direct question of ' how often do you feel lonely,' which can lead to biased responses due to stigma associated with loneliness or the UCLA Loneliness Scale which does not explicitly use the word 'lonely,'" said senior author Ellen Lee, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "For this project, we used natural language processing or NLP, an unbiased quantitative assessment of expressed emotion and sentiment, in concert with the usual loneliness measurement tools."
Artificial intelligence in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is the discipline using data intensive computer based solutions to improve patient care and outcome.
Advertisement
‘Artificial intelligence helps scientists better identify who is lonely and how older men and women differ in how they feel and express isolation. ’
Tweet it Now
Numerous studies have documented the rise of loneliness among older adults. For example, a study conducted by UC San Diego researchers revealed that 85 percent of residents living in an independent senior housing community reported moderate to severe loneliness levels.
The new study focused on 80 participants aged 66 to 94. The participants were interviewed by trained study staff in more unstructured conversations analyzed using NLP-understanding software developed by IBM, plus other machine-learning tools.
![Ways to Deal with Loneliness]( "Ways to Deal with Loneliness")
All of us feel lonely at some point in our lives. It is important to know how to deal with loneliness, rise above it and beat depression.
"NLP and machine learning allow us to systematically examine long interviews from many individuals and explore how subtle speech features like emotions may indicate loneliness. Similar emotion analyses by humans would be open to bias, lack consistency, and require extensive training to standardize," said first author Varsha Badal, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow.
Among the findings:
"Our IBM-UC San Diego Center is now exploring NLP signatures of loneliness and wisdom, which are inversely linked in older adults. Speech data can be combined with our other assessments of cognition, mobility, sleep, physical activity and mental health to improve our understanding of aging and to help promote successful aging" said study co-author Dilip Jeste, MD, senior associate dean for healthy aging and senior care and co-director of the IBM-UC San Diego Center for Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living.
Source: Medindia
Ways to Deal with Loneliness
All of us feel lonely at some point in our lives. It is important to know how to deal with loneliness, rise above it and beat depression.
Advertisement
"NLP and machine learning allow us to systematically examine long interviews from many individuals and explore how subtle speech features like emotions may indicate loneliness. Similar emotion analyses by humans would be open to bias, lack consistency, and require extensive training to standardize," said first author Varsha Badal, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow.
Among the findings:
- Lonely older adults had more extended responses in the qualitative interview and greatly expressed sadness to direct questions about loneliness.
- Women were more likely than men to acknowledge feeling lonely during interviews.
- Men used more fearful and joyful words in their responses compared to women.
"Our IBM-UC San Diego Center is now exploring NLP signatures of loneliness and wisdom, which are inversely linked in older adults. Speech data can be combined with our other assessments of cognition, mobility, sleep, physical activity and mental health to improve our understanding of aging and to help promote successful aging" said study co-author Dilip Jeste, MD, senior associate dean for healthy aging and senior care and co-director of the IBM-UC San Diego Center for Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living.
Source: Medindia
Test Your Knowledge on Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) or machine intelligence refers to the intelligence displayed by computers or robots in contrast to the natural intelligence exhibited by humans. It is considered one of the major advancements of the 4th industrial revolution and finds application in several fields including medicine. Take this quiz to test your knowledge on artificial intelligence
Advertisement
 Loneliness Could be Linked to Type 2 DiabetesThe onset of type 2 diabetes can be linked to the loneliness of a person, according to a recent study. The link could be the impact of constant loneliness on the biological system responsible for stress. | Advertisement
|
Advertisement
Recommended Reading
Latest News on IT in Healthcare
Identifying several predictive factors for scoring the Alzheimer's Disease risk using machine learning models can prevent recurrence or mitigate their adverse effects.
Although the body can often heal minor injuries on its own, this is not always the case for more serious wounds such as cuts, burns, and scrapes.
The expanding AI market in healthcare reflects the demand for new solutions that can enhance patient engagement and reduce healthcare costs.
Artificial intelligence helps doctors gain fresh insights from the data generated by the healthcare system leading to more effective diagnosis and treatment.
The newly discovered AI-based tool has the potential to enhance diagnosis of patients with brain tumors.