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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2219
igaa057.2219
Abstracts
Session 5865 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
EngAGE via Alexa for Older Adults and Caregivers: Design, Utilization, and Impact of Socially Motivated Exercise
Huisingh-Scheetz Megan 1 Nicholson Roscoe 2 Smith Chelsea 2 Shervani Saira 2 Montoya Yadira 3 Hawkley Louise 3 1 
University of Chicago, Riverside, Illinois, United States
2 
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States
3 
NORC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”645 645
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
EngAGE is a technology-based program leveraging Alexa that encourages older adult (OA) activity and socialization from home while empowering caregivers to support them. EngAGE delivers daily, in-home, NIA Go4Life exercise routines with instructions, pictures and music via Alexa Echo Shows or Fire Tablets to OAs. Caregivers use EngAGE to view scheduled exercises, follow progress, and send encouraging messages that are read aloud to OAs by Alexa. We will discuss the strategic co-design of EngAGE with OAs and caregivers and the utilization and functional impact of EngAGE over a 12-week feasibility and usability study (n=10 OA + caregiver pairs). Preliminary analyses revealed improvement in upper (mean grip strength change = +1.3 kg, paired t-test p=0.34) and lower (5-repeated chair stand time change = -2.3 seconds, paired t-test p=0.02) body strength. Discussion of focus group data will cover themes of perceived benefits, user experience, drivers/barriers to usage and desired features for EngAGE.