The study confirmed the effectiveness of the Tess chatbot in the prevention of obesity and diabetes in adolescents.
As part of the program of psychological support for adolescents with obesity in the United States, an innovative tool is now being used – a chatbot on the mHealth platform. A chatbot, or a virtual conversational partner, is a program that has been developed based on artificial intelligence technologies and neural networks. The Tess chatbot helps teens undergoing weight correction programs to control extra kilograms and stay motivated to lose weight.
The study, which was recently published in Translational Behavioral Medicine, confirms the effectiveness of the chatbot. It turned out that this form of support is convenient for adolescents. They are happy to communicate with a virtual conversational partner by text messages, and it responds to them as a human would answer, it sends reminders and helps to develop healthy eating behaviors.
The effect of natural communication between man and machine was achieved through the creation of a library of dialogues and behavioral interactions. Related work of health care specialists, developers of artificial intelligence technologies and behavioral psychologists has been carried out for five years.
Behavior correction is considered an important part of weight loss programs. The chatbot also includes the possibility of remote monitoring of dialogues by a psychologist to control the behavior of the program participant. This helps the youngster to keep motivated and not to deviate from the course on the way to improved health.