Mobile Phone-Based Chatbot for Family Planning and Contraceptive Information

Syed Ali Hussain, Folu Ogundimu, Shirish Bhattarai

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study is about a mobile phone-based Chatbot specifically designed to provide information about family planning and contraceptives. Chatbot is essentially a text-messaging service that follows a decision-tree structure to provide feedback to users. The Chatbot was built using a text-messaging platform developed by Trext and can be accessed in the United States by sending ‘BCS’ as a text message to phone number +1-313-228-3034. The contents of Chatbot are derived from the Balanced Counseling Strategy (BCS) prepared by The Population Council. UTAUT model of technology adoption was employed to assess the attitudinal and behavioral factors that determine the intention to use Chatbot. The study included 49 participants, age 18 and above, married or in a relationship. Regression analysis show positive attitude as the main predictor of behavioral intention to use Chatbot to acquire family planning related information. Consequently, positive attitude was determined by effort expectancy and performance expectancy to use the Chatbot. The study has implications to design mobile phone-based texting services to help mothers, husbands and community health providers to learn about family planning in a private, interactive and enjoyable manner. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile phone-based Chatbot for family planning counseling. The study is a proof-of-concept with limited number of participants within USA. However, the study offers implications to scale-up existing family planning interventions both domestically and internationally.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationDigital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management. Healthcare Applications - 10th International Conference, DHM 2019, Held as Part of the 21st HCI International Conference, HCII 2019, Proceedings
EditorsVincent G. Duffy
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages342-352
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9783030222185
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Event10th International Conference on Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management, DHM 2019, held as part of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI International 2019 - Orlando, United States
Duration: Jul 26 2019Jul 31 2019

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume11582 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference10th International Conference on Digital Human Modeling and Applications in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management, DHM 2019, held as part of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI International 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityOrlando
Period7/26/197/31/19

Keywords

  • Chatbot
  • Family planning
  • Mobile health
  • SMS
  • UTAUT

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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