Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: May 16, 2022
Date Accepted: Dec 23, 2022
Conversational Agents for Improving Weight-Related Behaviors and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Introduction: In recent years, there has been a rise in the use of conversational and virtual agents for lifestyle medicine, in particular for weight related behaviors and cardiometabolic risk factors. Little is known about their effectiveness, acceptability, and engagement as well as their applicability for metabolic syndrome risk factors such as an unhealthy dietary intake, physical inactivity, diabetes, and hypertension.
Objective:
Our aim was to gain a greater understanding of what virtual agents have been developed for cardiometabolic risk factors and to review their effectiveness.
Methods:
Methods:
A scoping review of PubMed/Medline was undertaken to review virtual agents for cardiometabolic risk factors including chatbots and embodied avatars.
Results:
Results:
A total of 51 studies were identified. Overall, chatbots and avatars appear to have potential for improve weight related behaviors such as dietary intake and physical activity. There were also limited studies on hypertension and diabetes. Patients seem interested in using chatbots and avatars for modifying cardiometabolic risk factors and adherence was acceptable across the studies, except diabetes. However, there is a need for randomized controlled trials to confirm this.
Conclusions:
Conclusion: Virtual coaches may regulate cardiometabolic risk factors, but quality trials are needed to grow the evidence base. A future chatbot could be tailored to the metabolic syndrome specifically, targeting all areas covered in the literature which would be novel. Clinical Trial: N/A
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