An empirical study investigating the user acceptance of a virtual conversational agent interface for family health history collection among the geriatric population

Ponathil A., Özkan N. F., Bertrand J., Agnisarman S., Narasimha S., Welch B., ...More

HEALTH INFORMATICS JOURNAL, vol.26, no.4, pp.2946-2966, 2020 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 26 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2020
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/1460458220955104
  • Journal Name: HEALTH INFORMATICS JOURNAL
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Applied Science & Technology Source, CINAHL, Computer & Applied Sciences, EBSCO Education Source, Educational research abstracts (ERA), EMBASE, INSPEC, Library and Information Science Abstracts, MEDLINE, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)
  • Page Numbers: pp.2946-2966
  • Keywords: virtual conversational agent interfaces, family health history collection, older adults, usability, user experience, INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY, PERCEIVED USEFULNESS, OLDER-ADULTS, USABILITY, FUTURE, USAGE, CARE, CAREGIVERS, RECORDS, SYSTEM
  • Eskisehir Osmangazi University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Critical for the early diagnosis of genetic disorders, a Family Health History (FHx) can be collected in several ways including electronic FHx tools, which aid easy editing and sharing by linking with other information management portals. The user acceptance of such systems is critical, especially among older adults experiencing motor and cognitive issues. This study investigated two types of FHx interfaces, standard and Virtual Conversational Agent (VCA), using 30 young (between 18 and 30) and 24 older participants (over 60). Workload, usability and performance data were collected. Even though participants required less time to complete three of five tasks on the standard interface, the VCA interface performed better in terms of subjective workload and usability. Additionally, 67% of the older adults preferred the VCA interface since it provided context-based guidance during the data collection process. The results from this study have implications for the use of virtual assistants in FHx and other areas of data collection.