Pilot of AGATHA, A Digital Healthy Ageing Coach for Older People

AGATHA, a virtual healthy ageing coach, co-developed by WHO WPRO with the China Academy of Information Communications Technology (CAICT), a WHO Collaborating Center for Digital Health, provides a versatile age-friendly platform for health promotion. The primary objective of AGATHA is to promote health among older adults in an engaging and accessible manner. Specifically, the interface enables voice recognition and is designed to be simple and intuitive. The existing prototype is a web-based application that can educate people on different health- related topics followed by quiz functions to evaluate understanding. It is also embedded with gamification components such as scoring, users’ progress tracking and badges for sharing with friends.

This project aims to conduct a pilot study to learn how AGATHA, a digital healthy ageing coach, can be utilized in a real life setting by older people in Malaysia. Additionally, knowledge on older people’s needs and interests for insights to optimize the platform for long-term use in the Malaysian context will be collected as part of the pilot.