Use of the Healthy Lifestyle Coaching Chatbot App to Promote Stair-Climbing Habits Among Office Workers: Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background Lack of time for exercise is common among office workers given their busy lives. Because of occupational restrictions and difficulty in taking time off, it is necessary to suggest effective ways for workers to exercise regularly. Sustaining lifestyle habits that increase nonexercise activity in daily life can solve the issue of lack of exercise time. Healthy Lifestyle Coaching Chatbot is a messenger app based on the habit formation model that can be used as a tool to provide a health behavior intervention that emphasizes the importance of sustainability and involvement. Objective This study aimed to assess the efficacy of the Healthy Lifestyle Coaching Chatbot intervention presented via a messenger app aimed at stair-climbing habit formation for office workers. Methods From February 1, 2018, to April 30, 2018, a total of 106 people participated in the trial after online recruitment. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n=57) or the control group (n=49). The intervention group received cues and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for the entire 12 weeks. However, the control group did not receive intrinsic rewards for the first 4 weeks and only received all rewards as in the intervention group from the fifth to twelfth week. The Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) of participants was evaluated every week, and the level of physical activity was measured at the beginning and end of the trial. SPSS Statistics version 21 (IBM Corp) was used for statistical analysis. Results After 4 weeks of intervention without providing the intrinsic rewards in the control group, the change in SRHI scores was 13.54 (SD 14.99) in the intervention group and 6.42 (SD 9.42) in the control group, indicating a significant difference between the groups (P=.04). When all rewards were given to both groups, from the fifth to twelfth week, the change in SRHI scores of the intervention and control groups was comparable at 12.08 (SD 10.87) and 15.88 (SD 13.29), respectively (P=.21). However, the level of physical activity showed a significant difference between the groups after 12 weeks of intervention (P=.045). Conclusions This study provides evidence that intrinsic rewards are important to enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of an intervention. The Healthy Lifestyle Coaching Chatbot program can be a cost-effective method for healthy habit formation. Trial Registration Clinical Research Information Service KCT0004009; https://tinyurl.com/w4oo7md

Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Behavior Change Model for Designing Artificial Intelligence Chatbots to Promote Physical Activity and a Healthy Diet: Viewpoint

“…However, 30% of participants stopped using the app over the course of the study, presenting a challenge for the chatbot’s ability to engage participants. In contrast, another study reported the results of an RCT (n=106) [ 43 ] to evaluate the Healthy Lifestyle Coaching chatbot. The findings demonstrated that this chatbot was effective in increasing physical activity after 12 weeks of the intervention among office workers.…”

“…The above-reviewed chatbots showed preliminary evidence supporting the efficacy of using chatbots to deliver physical activity and diet interventions. It is worth noting that four out of seven (57.1%) studies reported chatbots as the only intervention used to deliver behavior change strategies [ 26 , 43 , 44 , 46 ], whereas the other three articles reported chatbots as an auxiliary component complementing other intervention approaches such as messages and conversations delivered by human facilitators [ 41 , 42 , 45 ] ( Multimedia Appendix 1 ). The reviewed chatbots were designed with different theoretical components and varied in their abilities to engage in natural language conversations, relationship building, and emotional understanding.…”

Social Media Chatbot for Increasing Physical Activity: Usability Study

“…The positive attitudes could be a predictor of the chatbot's acceptability, as suggested by Nadarzynski et al [16]. Like other chatbots aimed at improving physical activity [15,22], MYA is integrated into a social media platform and does not need any installation, which eases access. MYA's ability to interact with users as a peer and remind them of their physical activity goals could contribute to continued chatbot use [17].…”

The Use of Chatbots in Digital Business Transformation: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Topics that were less frequently studied in the research relate to the use of chatbots for FAQs/troubleshooting [66]- [68], recruiting [23], [24], [69], relationships with chatbots [70], [71], trust [28], [72], advertising [30], health [73], security [74], user classification [75], purchasing [50], personalisation [76] or surveys [77].…”