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Augmenting Group Medical Visits with Conversational Agents for Stress Management Behavior Change

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Persuasive Technology: Development and Implementation of Personalized Technologies to Change Attitudes and Behaviors (PERSUASIVE 2017)

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Abstract

Individuals with chronic stress can improve their overall wellness by making lifestyle changes. We describe the design and evaluation of a computer-animated conversational agent that is used in conjunction with Integrative Medical Group Visits (IMGV) to help individuals with chronic pain and depression manage their stress. The agent coaches patients in between group visit sessions, reviewing how to manage stress using non-pharmaceutical techniques (e.g., mindfulness, meditation, yoga self-massage). We conducted a longitudinal clinical trial with 154 participants in which patients in the intervention group interacted with the conversational agent at home on a touch screen tablet to reinforce what they learned in group medical visits. Results from the trial indicate that the conversational agent, in conjunction with medical group visits, leads to significantly more positive stress management behaviors in patients compared to outcomes that arise in usual care, after 9 and 21 weeks.

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Acknowledgement

Research reported in this paper was partially funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Award (AD-1304-6218).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Ameneh Shamekhi & Timothy Bickmore

  2. Department of Family Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Anna Lestoquoy & Paula Gardiner

Authors
  1. Ameneh Shamekhi
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  2. Timothy Bickmore
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  3. Anna Lestoquoy
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  4. Paula Gardiner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ameneh Shamekhi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Peter W. de Vries

  2. University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Harri Oinas-Kukkonen

  3. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Liseth Siemons

  4. University de Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Nienke Beerlage-de Jong

  5. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Lisette van Gemert-Pijnen

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Shamekhi, A., Bickmore, T., Lestoquoy, A., Gardiner, P. (2017). Augmenting Group Medical Visits with Conversational Agents for Stress Management Behavior Change. In: de Vries, P., Oinas-Kukkonen, H., Siemons, L., Beerlage-de Jong, N., van Gemert-Pijnen, L. (eds) Persuasive Technology: Development and Implementation of Personalized Technologies to Change Attitudes and Behaviors. PERSUASIVE 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10171. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55134-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55134-0_5

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