A user-centered chatbot to identify and interconnect individual, social and environmental risk factors related to overweight and obesity

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of using a user-centered chatbotfor collecting linked data to study overweight and obesity causes ina target population. In total 980 people participated in the feasibility study organized in three studies: (1) within a group of university students (88 participants), (2) in a small town (422 participants), and (3) within a university community (470 participants). We gathered self-reported data through the Wakamola chatbot regarding participants diet, physical activity, social network, living area, obesity-associated diseases, and sociodemographic data. For each study, we calculated the mean Body Mass Index (BMI) and number of people in each BMI level. Also, we defined and calculated scores (1–100 scale) regarding global health, BMI, alimentation, physical activity and social network. Moreover, we graphically represented obesity risk for living areas and the social network with nodes colored by BMI. Students group results: Mean BMI 21.37 (SD 2.57) (normal weight), 8 people underweight, 5 overweight, 0 obesity, global health status 78.21, alimentation 63.64, physical activity 65.08 and social 26.54, 3 areas with mean BMI level of obesity, 17 with overweight level. Small town´s study results: Mean BMI 25.66 (SD 4.29) (overweight), 2 people underweight, 63 overweight, 26 obesity, global health status 69.42, alimentation 64.60, physical activity 60.61 and social 1.14, 1 area with mean BMI in normal weight; University´s study results: Mean BMI 23.63 (SD 3.7) (normal weight), 22 people underweight, 86 overweight, 28 obesity, global health status 81.03, alimentation 81.84, physical activity 70.01 and social 1.47, 3 areas in obesity level, 19 in overweight level. Wakamola is a health care chatbot useful to collect relevant data from populations in the risk of overweight and obesity. Besides, the chatbot provides individual self-assessment of BMI and general status regarding the style of living. Moreover, Wakamola connects users in a social network to help the study of O&O´s causes from an individual, social and socio-economic perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Mhealth
• obesity
• overweight
• chatbot
• assessment
• gamification
• public health
• telegram
• user-centered design

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Tavernes de la Valldigna (Spain) city council, and the UPV´s Vice-Rectorate for Social Responsibility and Cooperation, and the Vice-rectorate for Campuses and Sustainability for their support to this study. We also acknowledge Shabbir Syed-Abdul and Yu-Chuan (Jack) Li from the International Center for Health Information Technology (ICHIT) at Taipei Medical University for their support associated with the Crowd Health Project.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

Funding acquisition, J.M.G.-G.; investigation, S.A.-C., J.A.C., J.M.G.-G.; software, V.-B, M.-P; supervision, S.A.-C. and J.M.G.-G.; writing—original draft, S.A.-C., J.A.C., J.M.G.-G. and V.-B.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the authors’ various departments, and partially by the Crowd Health Project (Collective Wisdom Driving Public Health Policies [727560]).