ArticleJMIR human factors2020
Embodied Conversational Agent Appearance for Health Assessment of Older Adults: Explorative Study.
Article in JMIR human factors, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Usability and User Experience Assessment of Health Care Conversational Agents Using Validated Subjective Instruments: Systematic Review and Comparative Analysis.JMIR human factors · 2026Pooled it
- Mobile health applications for older adults: a systematic review of interface and persuasive feature design.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2021Pooled it
- Digital future-self interventions to promote physical activity: perspectives of minimally active middle-aged and older adults.Journal of imagery research in sport and physical activity · 2025Article
- The Value of a Virtual Assistant to Improve Engagement in Computerized Cognitive Training at Home: Exploratory Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2024Article
- Intrinsic Capacity and Active and Healthy Aging Domains Supported by Personalized Digital Coaching: Survey Study Among Geriatricians in Europe and Japan on eHealth Opportunities for Older Adults.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Factors Influencing the Acceptability, Acceptance, and Adoption of Conversational Agents in Health Care: Integrative Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Review
- Driving With Agents: Investigating the Influences of Anthropomorphism Level and Physicality of Agents on Drivers' Perceived Control, Trust, and Driving Performance.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- An Embodied Conversational Agent in an eHealth Self-management Intervention for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Chronic Heart Failure: Exploratory Study in a Real-life Setting.JMIR human factors · 2021Article
- Research Trends in Artificial Intelligence Applications in Human Factors Health Care: Mapping Review.JMIR human factors · 2021Review
- Supporting eating behaviour of community-dwelling older adults: co-design of an embodied conversational agent.Design for health (Abingdon, England) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEmbodied conversational agents (ECAs) have great potential for health apps but are rarely investigated as part of such apps. To promote the uptake of health apps, we need to understand how the design of ECAs can influence the preferences, motivation, and behavior of users.
objectiveThis is one of the first studies that investigates how the appearance of an ECA implemented within a health app affects users' likeliness of following agent advice, their perception of agent characteristics, and their feeling of rapport. In addition, we assessed usability and intention to use.
methodsThe ECA was implemented within a frailty assessment app in which three health questionnaires were translated into agent dialogues. In a within-subject experiment, questionnaire dialogues were randomly offered by a young female agent or an older male agent. Participants were asked to think aloud during interaction. Afterward, they rated the likeliness of following the agent's advice, agent characteristics, rapport, usability, and intention to use and participated in a semistructured interview.
resultsA total of 20 older adults (72.2 [SD 3.5] years) participated. The older male agent was perceived as more authoritative than the young female agent (P=.03), but no other differences were found. The app scored high on usability (median 6.1) and intention to use (median 6.0). Participants indicated they did not see an added value of the agent to the health app.
conclusionsAgent age and gender little influence users' impressions after short interaction but remain important at first glance to lower the threshold to interact with the agent. Thus, it is important to take the design of ECAs into account when implementing them into health apps.
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