Usage and Health Effects of Embodied Conversational Agents Among Older Adults

Summary

Rationale: Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs), could be a highly effective medium to address health behaviour change among older adults. As compliance to health advice is important for positive health outcomes, successful design of persuasive ECAs can have huge health benefits. However, insights in the mechanisms underlying usage and health behaviour change via ECAs are lacking.

Objective: The objective is to unravel the mechanisms behind the use of an ECA intervention, and understand the mechanism behind the observed behaviour change

Study design: A randomized staggered-entry waitlist-controlled trial will be carried out.

Study population: The study population consist of Dutch-speaking older adults, who live independently, are without partner, are retired, 65+ and possess basic computer skills.

Intervention: The application PACO has been created for (and with) older adults with the goal to motivate them to improve their eating behaviour and decrease their feelings of loneliness.

Main study parameters/endpoints: The main study parameters are use, loneliness, and eating behaviour.

Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: Subjects are not exposed to any risks, nor have they any costs. They do have to fill in questionnaires and use the application. The duration and data collection moments are needed to gain a fine-grained understanding of the use, relationship development and health change process. For subjects, the main benefit is to gain insight in their health behaviour via the PACO-application. Although this might be experienced as confronting by some. The technology was developed based on sound theories, with input from the target group, so the investigators expect positive experiences and an improvement in participants loneliness and eating behaviour. However, this can only be proven after the study.

Conditions

• Eating Behavior
• Loneliness
• Technology Use

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

PACO

The intervention is a fully-automated web-based eHealth application in which two embodied conversational agents engage in dialogue with older adults in order to motivate them towards dietary behavior change and decrease loneliness. The application consists of five different modules, each one applying different behavior change techniques.

BEHAVIORAL

Waiting list + PACO

Waiting list + PACO

Sponsors & Collaborators

• ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development

  collaborator OTHER

• WAAG

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Roessingh Research and Development

  collaborator OTHER

• National Foundation for the Elderly

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Wageningen University and Research

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Emely de Vet, PhD · Wageningen University & Research

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-07-13

Primary Completion

2020-12-30

Completion

2020-12-30

Countries

• Netherlands

Study Locations