Supporting eating behaviour of community-dwelling older adults: co-design of an embodied conversational agent

Abstract

In order to support community-dwelling older adults with healthy eating behaviours, Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) may be an effective and engaging medium. However, ECAs have not yet been found to be capable of engendering behaviour change, which is partly attributed to the absence of a match with users' practices, needs and preferences. Hence, we describe a co-design process with older adults that informs both the content and the appearance of an ECA. Data was gathered through three consecutive iterations of co-design sessions with two groups of community-dwelling older adults in the Netherlands. Prior to the first session, participants completed a seven-day lifestyle diary. This study adds knowledge on the meaning of healthy eating, as well as on specific barriers to, and opportunities for, giving advice using an ECA in this target group. Furthermore, we translate this knowledge into general advice for designing an ECA in the context of health behaviour change, while reflecting on a co-design process with older adults.

Supporting Healthy Aging through the Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability of Assistive Technology Implementation: A Rapid Realist Review of Participatory Co-Design for Assistive Technology with Older Adults

“…Researchers have to adapt their methods, their dissemination practices and knowledge mobilization activities based on the new knowledge. Older adults must be considered as stakeholders with a high degree of expertise as well as the end-users, therefore they should be treated as experts and acknowledging their contributions to generate design and implementation insights; researchers, policy makers, and tech designers must be well trained on the use of language and behavioral skills to correctly promote engagement, collaboration, and cooperation via co-design approaches to achieve successful implementation co-design projects (Kramer et al, 2021).…”

Short and Long-Term Innovations on Dietary Behavior Assessment and Coaching: Present Efforts and Vision of the Pride and Prejudice Consortium

“…Studies show that appearance of the ECA matters, but even when appearance and design is optimized, the dialogues need to remain persuasive and engaging over time. It might well be that conversational agents for dietary change could function best in an add-on format to other interventions (e.g., in addition to regular care or dietician's advice) or for specific patients group that are highly motivated to adjust their diets (e.g., patients in cardiac rehabilitation) [86][87][88].…”

An Online Acceptance and Mindfulness Intervention for Chronic Pain in Veterans: Development and Protocol for a Pilot Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial

“…One way to increase engagement with online behavioral interventions is by using embodied conversational agents (ECAs), which are computer-animated characters that simulate interactive dialogue with patients [ 31 ]. An ECA can act as a responsive, humanistic, and nonjudgmental coach to guide patients through treatments such as health behavior change interventions, social skills training, and mindfulness-based stress reduction [ 32 - 35 ]. Interacting with ECAs that guide behavior interventions has been associated with positive outcomes such as higher use of stress management skills [ 33 ] and healthier eating behaviors in older adults [ 35 ].…”