An action-based behavior model for persuasive telehealth

Technological advances in telehealth systems are primarily focused on sensing, monitoring and analysis. Intervention, behavior alternation and in general affecting change could use additional research and technology development. Many people, especially the elderly, are resistant to change. Such resistance diminishes the impact factor of telehealth systems. Persuasion technology and mechanisms are urgently needed to counter this resistance to change and promote healthy lifestyle. In this paper, we propose an action- based behavior model to enable persuasion. We also review existing technologies we believe are most suitable for enabling persuasive telehealth. We present our ongoing work in the domain of behavior alteration for obese and diabetic individuals. © 2010 Springer-Verlag