Conversational Agents for Chronic Disease Self-Management: A Systematic Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Conversational agents have the potential to deliver patient-centered interventions that focus on goal setting, feedback, and education. However, little is known how these agents may be utilized to assist patients with chronic disease self-management. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to systematically review the literature to assess how conversational agents have been used to facilitate chronic disease self-management and to identify gaps in the evidence base. METHODS The systematic review utilized Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines across five databases. We included full-text journal articles or conference proceedings that contained primary research findings for text-based conversational agents focused on self-management for chronic diseases in adults. Two reviewers independently extracted information from the included studies, analyzed the data, grouped the studies into themes, and rated the quality of the studies. RESULTS 1,606 studies were identified, and 12 studies met inclusion criteria. There were five randomized controlled trials, five quasi-experimental studies, and two non-experimental studies. Studies were heterogeneous in design and many lacked methodological rigor. Participants mostly reported positive attitudes towards conversational agents, and there were improvements on the Patient Health Questionnaire (P<.05), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (P=.004), Perceived Stress Scale (P=.048), Flourishing Scale (P=.032), and Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (P<.05) between the conversational agent intervention and control groups in three randomized controlled trials. Major themes related to user perceptions were personalization, engagement, and social support. The majority of conversational agents were based upon theoretical grounding, but few studies reported using established design principles and no studies used heuristic evaluation. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that conversational agents are acceptable and have the potential to support self-management particularly for mental health conditions. As this is an emerging area of research, efficacy of long-term use of conversational agents for chronic disease self-management is unknown but shows promise. Future studies should assess the characteristics of agents that may be most useful for self-management based on the patient’s clinical and sociodemographic characteristics, motivation, and preferences.