Promoting Pediatric Healthcare through Persuasive Information Systems: A Qualitative Study

This paper presents qualitative findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial that focused on applying a Persuasive Information System to promote Pediatric Healthcare following the guidelines of Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses. The study was primarily designed to introduce Persuasive Information Systems for promoting pediatric healthcare in a relatively under-developed country. The study investigates potential impact of simple text-based reminders on improving parents’ knowledge and skills when dealing with a sick child at home before deciding to seek healthcare professionals. Reminders were selected for this study, as they are most commonly employed persuasive software features in the area of Persuasive Information Systems. For data collection, we conducted Focus Group Discussions with participants of both intervention groups. The qualitative findings indicate that the participants largely favored reminders although there were some skeptical remarks. The findings from presented study are expected to help system designers work in collaboration with parents and healthcare professionals to improve the content and delivery of reminders. The qualitative findings helped us identify five emerging themes that are expected to open research opportunities for improving child healthcare researchers

Increasing User Involvement in Health Care and Health Research Simultaneously: A Proto-Protocol for "Person-as-Researcher" and Online Decision Support Tools.

BACKGROUND: User involvement is appearing increasingly on policy agendas in many countries, with a variety of proposals for facilitating it. The belief is that it will produce better health for individuals and community, as well as demonstrate greater respect for the basic principles of autonomy and democracy. OBJECTIVE: Our Web-based project aims to increase involvement in health care and health research and is presented in the form of an umbrella protocol for a set of project-specific protocols. We conceptualize the person as a researcher engaged in a continual, living, informal "n-of-1"-type study of the effects of different actions and interventions on their health, including those implying contact with health care services. We see their research as primarily carried out in order to make better decisions for themselves, but they can offer to contribute the results to the wider population. We see the efforts of the "person-as-researcher" as contributing to the total amount of research undertaken in the community, with research not being confined to that undertaken by professional researchers and institutions. This view is fundamentally compatible with both the emancipatory and conventional approaches to increased user involvement, though somewhat more aligned with the former. METHODS: Our online decision support tools, delivered directly to the person in the community and openly accessible, are to be seen as research resources. They will take the form of interactive decision aids for a variety of specific health conditions, as well as a generic one that supports all health and health care decisions through its focus on key aspects of decision quality. We present a high-level protocol for the condition-specific studies that will implement our approach, organized within the Populations, Interventions, Comparators, Outcomes, Timings, and Settings (PICOTS) framework. RESULTS: Our underlying hypothesis concerns the person-as-researcher who is equipped with a prescriptive, transparent, expected value-based opinion-an opinion that combines their criterion importance weights with the Best Estimates Available Now for how well each of the available options performs on each of those outcomes. The hypothesis is that this person-as-researcher is more likely to be able to position themselves as an active participant in a clinical encounter, if they wish, than someone who has engaged with a descriptive decision aid that attempts to work with their existing cognitive processes and stresses the importance of information. The precise way this is hypothesis tested will be setting-specific and condition-specific and will be spelled out in the individual project protocols. CONCLUSIONS: Decision resources that provide fast access to the results of slower thinking can provide the stimulus that many individuals need to take a more involved role in their own health. Our project, advanced simply as one approach to increased user involvement, is designed to make progress in the short term with minimal resources and to do so at the point of decision need, when motivation is highest. Some basic distinctions, such as those between science and non-science, research and practice, community and individual, and lay and professional become somewhat blurred and may need to be rethought in light of this approach

Exploring factors influencing actor engagement in MyData health platform: A case study from Finland

In the digital era, a large amount of health data has been documented, generated and stored in clinical evaluation and daily life, but citizen-generated health data has yet to be combined, interoperated, analysed, and made available for professionals, citizens, research institutes, and companies for secondary use. Finland is trying to build the MyData health platform, which links multiple actors to co-create health value and make it understandable for citizens. Engaging multiple actors plays a key role in transitioning to the MyData health platform in terms of continuous data sharing and co-creation. This study therefore investigates enablers, barriers, and expectations that influence the actors’ engagement with the MyData health platform. This study applied a single case study based on 30 interviews, and identified the four themes that influence actor engagement: 1) perceived technology; 2) health value co-creation; 3) perceived empowerment and social influence; and 4) perceived trustworthiness and legitimation

Treating Depression with a Behavior Change Support System without Face-to-Face Therapy

In this paper, we present results from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that examined the impact of persuasive reminders and virtual rehearsal on the effectiveness of a behavior-change support system (BCSS). We developed the Web-based BCSS to support people with mild to moderate depression without face-to-face therapy. We randomized eligible participants into two groups. Both groups rehearsed the target behavior virtually; however, only the first intervention group received email-based reminders. We applied a mixed-methods approach for the analysis. We collected data with semi-structured self-reported questionnaires and post-study interviews. Results indicate that the severity of depression was noticeably decreased and participants’ self-confidence to manage depressive thoughts was generally improved. The influence of persuasive reminders on task completion was less than we anticipated, while the participants felt that virtual rehearsal was an effective technique for learning new behaviors. We discuss possible reasons for the results at the end of the paper

Perceptions of the Ethics of Persuasive Technology

This thesis explores the perceptions of the ethics of persuasive technology as applied to the design of user interfaces. The intentions are to learn whether consumers of software see persuasion through technology as ethical, whether producers of software view the development of persuasive technology as ethical, and whether these opinions can be reconciled. This research consists of a review of relevant literature on the topic, a survey of software consumers, interviews with software producers, and an analysis of the data, resulting in conclusions intended to influence the responsible design of user interfaces in the future. The results suggest a number of findings, including that persuasive technology is effective, that software consumers do not necessarily recognize persuasion when it is applied to them, and that they do not generally wish to be persuaded, unless they view the motivation of the persuader as being morally admirable. Software producers, on the other hand, do not intentionally behave unethically, but they are open to the development of persuasive technology, and even deceptive technology under some conditions. Persuasive technology has been described and analyzed to some extent in the academic literature, but often the ethical considerations have been given only secondary importance, although in a few cases, authors have expressed strong opinions that ethics can and should be considered when designing and developing software. Recent discussions among software design professionals online have demonstrated that there are growing concerns about the use of persuasive technology, even if these concerns have not yet been extensively explored in academic study

Smart Storytelling to enhance engagement in treatments for noncommunicable disease patients

Humanity is becoming more and more adept to technology, embracing it in all areas of life. From knowledge to security, hopes are increasing regarding the solution of problems that were once seen as impossible to control. In developing countries, where medical resources are becoming scarce but human capital is growing, massive and effective responses are needed to prevent and halt the expansion of unhealthy conditions. A vital topic to address is that of healthcare and the impact of changes in habits to improve following treatment regimens. Fortunately, this sector can now find support in tools whose purpose it predominantly to entertain but that may help in dealing with the hardships of living with a chronic disease. Finding cohesive solutions among different fields of study -such as arts, science and engineering- is not a straightforward task. In this work, noncommunicable diseases serve as the inspiration to design a tool that can help patients engage with their regimens by using interactive telenovelas (i.e. soap operas) to entertain and promote self-reflection. To analyze the impact of this tool, the research revolves around two inquiries: how is smart storytelling experienced by noncommunicable disease patients and in what ways are dimensions of engagement stimulated by smart storytelling. To develop this idea, an extensive process was performed through a literature review, ideation & prototypes, an implementation of the final concept (Chreune) and the validation of the tool with a modest set of potential users in a developing country: Mexico. The analysis of the evaluation outcomes brings to light that patients can engage with interactive telenovelas and question their own actions when the plot depends on them. The work illustrates a viable path between medical and entertainment fields that may lead to a more enticing way of dealing with prevention and/or treatment of noncommunicable diseases

Three approaches to ethical considerations in the design of behavior change support systems

Abstract Many ethical questions arise when developing persuasive systems. It has become evident that there is no silver bullet which would make it easy to resolve all ethical issues in all cases. This paper seeks to analyze and define potential ways to address ethical considerations in persuasive systems design. We suggest that there are three main approaches: a guideline-based approach, stakeholder analysis, and involving users. This paper helps to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches when developing behavior change support systems, which, by their very nature, request deep engagement and commitment from their users. A pragmatic goal for this paper is to help designers choose an approach for their projects at hand

Beiträge zur IT-gestützten Verhaltensänderung

Mitarbeiter in Unternehmen, deren Tätigkeit mit Freiheiten und somit einem hohen Maß an Eigenverantwortung einhergeht, sind auf gutes Selbstmanagement angewiesen. Insbesondere gewohntes Verhalten aufzugeben fällt Menschen schwer und erfordert strikte und dauerhafte Umsetzung. Persuasive Technology (PT) ist eine Klasse von Informationstechnologie (IT), deren Ziel es ist, Verhalten zu verändern und könnte somit das Selbstmanagement von Mitarbeitern unterstützen. Diese Art von IT-Unterstützung bringt Vorteile mit sich, da sie skalierbar sowie orts- und zeitunabhängig verfügbar ist. Der Stand der Forschung hierzu gilt jedoch als lückenhaft. Deshalb bestehen Zweifel, ob die Technologie tatsächlich die Wirksamkeit entwickeln kann, die man ihr zuschreibt. Diese Arbeit untersucht anhand einer systematischen Literaturstudie, inwieweit PT derzeit das Potenzial hat, die Wirksamkeit von Selbstmanagement zu erhöhen, um eine aktive Veränderung des eigenen gewohnten Verhaltens zu erreichen. Der identifizierte Bedarf nach Personalisierung zur Steigerung der Wirksamkeit von Artefakten und einer ethischen Betrachtung wird diskutiert, um daraus konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen abzuleiten