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Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment

BACKGROUND: The incidence of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes is increasing in countries worldwide, including Singapore. Health professional–delivered healthy lifestyle interventions have been shown to prevent type 2 diabetes. However, ongoing personalized guidance from health professionals...

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Autores principales: Dhinagaran, Dhakshenya Ardhithy, Sathish, Thirunavukkarasu, Kowatsch, Tobias, Griva, Konstadina, Best, James Donovan, Tudor Car, Lorainne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8663498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34762053
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/30435
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author Dhinagaran, Dhakshenya Ardhithy
Sathish, Thirunavukkarasu
Kowatsch, Tobias
Griva, Konstadina
Best, James Donovan
Tudor Car, Lorainne
author_facet Dhinagaran, Dhakshenya Ardhithy
Sathish, Thirunavukkarasu
Kowatsch, Tobias
Griva, Konstadina
Best, James Donovan
Tudor Car, Lorainne
author_sort Dhinagaran, Dhakshenya Ardhithy
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The incidence of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes is increasing in countries worldwide, including Singapore. Health professional–delivered healthy lifestyle interventions have been shown to prevent type 2 diabetes. However, ongoing personalized guidance from health professionals is not feasible or affordable at the population level. Novel digital interventions delivered using mobile technology, such as conversational agents, are a potential alternative for the delivery of healthy lifestyle change behavioral interventions to the public. OBJECTIVE: We explored perceptions and experiences of Singaporeans on healthy living, diabetes, and mobile health (mHealth) interventions (apps and conversational agents). This study was conducted to help inform the design and development of a conversational agent focusing on healthy lifestyle changes. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted in August and September 2019. A total of 20 participants were recruited from relevant healthy living Facebook pages and groups. Semistructured interviews were conducted in person or over the telephone using an interview guide. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed in parallel by 2 researchers using Burnard’s method, a structured approach for thematic content analysis. RESULTS: The collected data were organized into 4 main themes: use of conversational agents, ubiquity of smartphone apps, understanding of diabetes, and barriers and facilitators to a healthy living in Singapore. Most participants used health-related mobile apps as well as conversational agents unrelated to health care. They provided diverse suggestions for future conversational agent-delivered interventions. Participants also highlighted several knowledge gaps in relation to diabetes and healthy living. Regarding barriers to healthy living, participants mentioned frequent dining out, high stress levels, lack of work-life balance, and lack of free time to engage in physical activity. In contrast, discipline, preplanning, and sticking to a routine were important for enabling a healthy lifestyle. CONCLUSIONS: Participants in this study commonly used mHealth interventions and provided important insights into their knowledge gaps and needs in relation to changes in healthy lifestyle behaviors. Future digital interventions such as conversational agents focusing on healthy lifestyle and diabetes prevention should aim to address the barriers highlighted in our study and motivate individuals to adopt healthy lifestyle behavior.
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spelling pubmed-86634982022-01-05 Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment Dhinagaran, Dhakshenya Ardhithy Sathish, Thirunavukkarasu Kowatsch, Tobias Griva, Konstadina Best, James Donovan Tudor Car, Lorainne JMIR Form Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: The incidence of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes is increasing in countries worldwide, including Singapore. Health professional–delivered healthy lifestyle interventions have been shown to prevent type 2 diabetes. However, ongoing personalized guidance from health professionals is not feasible or affordable at the population level. Novel digital interventions delivered using mobile technology, such as conversational agents, are a potential alternative for the delivery of healthy lifestyle change behavioral interventions to the public. OBJECTIVE: We explored perceptions and experiences of Singaporeans on healthy living, diabetes, and mobile health (mHealth) interventions (apps and conversational agents). This study was conducted to help inform the design and development of a conversational agent focusing on healthy lifestyle changes. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted in August and September 2019. A total of 20 participants were recruited from relevant healthy living Facebook pages and groups. Semistructured interviews were conducted in person or over the telephone using an interview guide. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed in parallel by 2 researchers using Burnard’s method, a structured approach for thematic content analysis. RESULTS: The collected data were organized into 4 main themes: use of conversational agents, ubiquity of smartphone apps, understanding of diabetes, and barriers and facilitators to a healthy living in Singapore. Most participants used health-related mobile apps as well as conversational agents unrelated to health care. They provided diverse suggestions for future conversational agent-delivered interventions. Participants also highlighted several knowledge gaps in relation to diabetes and healthy living. Regarding barriers to healthy living, participants mentioned frequent dining out, high stress levels, lack of work-life balance, and lack of free time to engage in physical activity. In contrast, discipline, preplanning, and sticking to a routine were important for enabling a healthy lifestyle. CONCLUSIONS: Participants in this study commonly used mHealth interventions and provided important insights into their knowledge gaps and needs in relation to changes in healthy lifestyle behaviors. Future digital interventions such as conversational agents focusing on healthy lifestyle and diabetes prevention should aim to address the barriers highlighted in our study and motivate individuals to adopt healthy lifestyle behavior. JMIR Publications 2021-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8663498/ /pubmed/34762053 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/30435 Text en ©Dhakshenya Ardhithy Dhinagaran, Thirunavukkarasu Sathish, Tobias Kowatsch, Konstadina Griva, James Donovan Best, Lorainne Tudor Car. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 11.11.2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Formative Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://formative.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Dhinagaran, Dhakshenya Ardhithy
Sathish, Thirunavukkarasu
Kowatsch, Tobias
Griva, Konstadina
Best, James Donovan
Tudor Car, Lorainne
Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment
title Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment
title_full Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment
title_fullStr Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment
title_full_unstemmed Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment
title_short Public Perceptions of Diabetes, Healthy Living, and Conversational Agents in Singapore: Needs Assessment
title_sort public perceptions of diabetes, healthy living, and conversational agents in singapore: needs assessment
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8663498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34762053
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/30435
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