A Conversational Agent for Empowering People with Parkinson’s Disease in Exercising Through Motivation and Support
Source abstract
Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. The MoveONParkinson project aims to enhance exercise engagement among people with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD) in the Portuguese context through the ONParkinson digital platform, which provides mobile and web interfaces. While the broader MoveONParkinson project has been previously described from a health-focused perspective, this study specifically focuses on the development and integration of an AI-driven conversational agent (CA) for the Portuguese language, called PANDORA, within the mobile interface of the solution to assist and motivate PwPD in their exercise routines. PANDORA (Parkinson Assistant in Natural Dialogue and Oriented by Rules and Assessments), designed based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), addresses the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. A preliminary study involving 20 PwPD, 10 caregivers, and 5 healthcare professionals informed the design requirements for PANDORA. The development process involved four main phases: (1) Design of the Chatbot’s Motivation Model, (2) Design and implementation of the conversational agent, (3) Technical Performance Evaluation, and (4) User Experience Evaluation. Technical Performance Evaluation, conducted with three physiotherapists, assessed domain coverage, coherence response capacity, and dialog management capacity, achieving 100% accuracy in domain coverage and coherence response capacity and 89% in dialog management capacity. The User Experience Study involved eight PwPD users recruited from Portuguese healthcare units performing predefined tasks, with user satisfaction scores ranging from 4.2 to 4.9 on a five-point Likert scale. The findings indicate that integrating a conversational agent with motivational cues tends to increase patient engagement. However, further studies are required to determine PANDORA’s impact on exercise engagement in PwPD.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Digital Mental Health Interventions · Mobile Health and mHealth Applications · Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Setúbal, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Campus do IPS, 2910-761 Setúbal, Portugal
Centro ALGORITMI, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Guimarães, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
NOVA Laboratory of Computer Science and Informatics (NOVA LINCS), NOVA School of Science & Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Center for Regional Resilience and Sustainability (RESILIENCE), Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Campus do IPS, 2910-761 Setúbal, Portugal
Departamento de Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicações e de Computadores, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Rua Conselheiro Emídio Navarro 1, 1959-007 Lisboa, Portugal
Departamento de Fisioterapia, Escola Superior de Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Campus do IPS, 2910-761 Setúbal, Portugal
Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), NOVA Medical School, 1150-190 Lisboa, Portugal
Funding
Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal
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