Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Oct 29, 2023
Date Accepted: Apr 29, 2024
Insights into the use of AGATHA, a digital healthy aging coach for older adults from Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Background:
Digital inclusion plays a pivotal determinant in a healthy aging society; however, older adults risk falling behind due to the lack of digital access, as well as physical and social barriers. The Avatar for Global Access to Technology for Healthy Aging (AGATHA) is a virtual healthy aging coach designed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a one-stop shop platform to promote healthy aging and encourage inclusive design principles for digital tools for older adults. AGATHA comprises multiple health-related topics and modules, which serves to promote user engagement through gamification
Objective:
This study aims to explore and understand Malaysian older adults’ perceptions and user experiences of AGATHA application and avatar interactions that improve their digital literacy using technology tools.
Methods:
This study aims to explore and understand Malaysian older adults’ perceptions and user experiences of AGATHA application and avatar interactions that improve their digital literacy using technology tools.
Results:
Overall, the participants found AGATHA to be easily understood, informative, and beneficial in enhancing their health literacy. Nevertheless, participants suggested that the program should provide opportunities for interaction with peers, offer personalized content, improve user experience (UX) design, and enhance personalization and decision support features.
Conclusions:
This study found that the prototype digital health coaching program could potentially support older participants in healthy aging and increase their digital literacy and confidence. Further improvements based on the suggestions provided should be considered in future iterations. Findings offer a useful starting point for designing other digital health tools and interventions targeting older adults beyond AGATHA. Clinical Trial: N/A
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.