A humanoid social robot to provide personalized feedback for health promotion in diet, physical activity, alcohol and cigarette use: a health clinic trial

Social robots have been used to promote health education and coaching to provide health information. Important behaviors to address and monitor include actions that can be modified, such as physical activity. These behaviours often require different personalised recommendations. Robots could be an effective way to give personalised health feedback based on scores, including in acute medical settings. This trial involved an automated social robot interaction in a health clinic to collect health data and provide personalized feedback on four key factors: exercise, diet, alcohol and cigarette use. Patients completed an 20-minute health questionnaire with a Pepper Robot in a clinic room during a health visit. The interaction was programmed to run autonomously with automatic scoring and feedback based on health scores. Instructions were delivered using co-verbal speech and detailed text on the tablet. Questions also included ratings on comfort to discuss health topics with a human or robot. Patients could choose to receive an optional follow-up in four weeks' time. A total of 47 patients completed the session. Patients reported being as comfortable to discuss health-related topics with a robot or human for exercise, diet, alcohol, cigarette use, and mental health. Program evaluation received moderate ratings for the robot on ease of use, usefulness and motivation to change a health behavior. No significant health changes were found 30 days later due to high initial health scores, leaving little room for improvement. This initial proof-of-concept trial found that a robot-delivered service could be deployed in a live health clinic in conjunction with patient visits.