AI-enhanced conversational agents for personalized asthma support Factors for engagement, value and efficacy
This addresses the need for alternative asthma support methods to improve health education and self-management, though it is incremental as it focuses on survey-based insights rather than deploying a new system.
The study tackled the problem of low asthma care access in the UK by surveying patients to identify factors for engagement with chatbots, finding that 53% of adults with asthma are interested, particularly those with more serious asthma and less self-management confidence.
Asthma-related deaths in the UK are the highest in Europe, and only 30% of patients access basic care. There is a need for alternative approaches to reaching people with asthma in order to provide health education, self-management support and bridges to care. Automated conversational agents (specifically, mobile chatbots) present opportunities for providing alternative and individually tailored access to health education, self-management support and risk self-assessment. But would patients engage with a chatbot, and what factors influence engagement? We present results from a patient survey (N=1257) devised by a team of asthma clinicians, patients, and technology developers, conducted to identify optimal factors for efficacy, value and engagement for a chatbot. Results indicate that most adults with asthma (53%) are interested in using a chatbot and the patients most likely to do so are those who believe their asthma is more serious and who are less confident about self-management. Results also indicate enthusiasm for 24/7 access, personalisation, and for WhatsApp as the preferred access method (compared to app, voice assistant, SMS or website). Obstacles to uptake include security/privacy concerns and skepticism of technological capabilities. We present detailed findings and consolidate these into 7 recommendations for developers for optimising efficacy of chatbot-based health support.