Using Artificial Intelligence Chatbots To Promote Physical Activity, Healthy Diet, And Weight Loss

Background and aims: Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots, also called conversational agents,utilize dialogue systems to enable natural language conversations with users through speech, text,or both. By using natural language processing and cloud computing infrastructures, AI chatbotscan participate in a wide range, from constrained (i.e., rule-based) to unconstrained conversations(i.e., human-to-human-like communication). Physical inactivity, inappropriate diet, and obesityare worldwide health issues. They are well-known modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular diseases,type ۲ diabetes, particular types of cancers, cognitive decline, and premature death. Thissystematic review aimed to evaluate if AI chatbot interventions were successful in changing physicalactivity, healthy eating, weight management behaviors, and other related health outcomes.Method: This study is a review study by analyzing articles from databases, including PubMed,EMBASE, ACM Digital Library, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and IEEE. This research has beendone with keywords “ artificial intelligence”, “chatbot “, “diet” and “weight loss” from ۲۰۱۳ toFebruary ۲۰۲۳. Only randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies were included.The National Institutes of Health quality assessment tools were used to assess risk of bias in individualstudies.Results: Most studies focused on changes in PA, and majority reported considerable improvementsin PA-related behaviors. The number of studies with the aim to change diet and weightstatus was relatively small. Two studies found noticeable improvements in diet-related behaviors.Although only ۱ study reported weight-related outcomes, it reported significant weight changeafter the intervention. In summation, chatbots can improve PA, but the study not able to makedefinitive conclusions on the potential efficacy of chatbot interventions on promoting PA, healthyeating, or weight loss. Eighty-nine and thirty-three percent of the studies specified a name andgender (i.e., woman) of the chatbot, respectively. More than half (۵۶%) of the studies used a constrainedchatbot (i.e., rule-based), while the remaining studies used unconstrained chatbots thatresemble human-to-human communication.Conclusion: Chatbots can improve physical activity, but we were not able to make definitive conclusionsregarding the efficacy of chatbot interventions on physical activity, diet, and weight management.In addition, theoretical frameworks that can capture the unique factors of human-chatbotinteractions for behavior changes need to be developed and used to guide future AI chatbotinterventions. Application of AI chatbots is an emerging field of research in lifestyle modificationprograms and is anticipated to grow exponentially. Therefore, standardization of designing andreporting chatbot interventions is warranted in the near future.

کلیدواژه ها:

Artificial Intelligence ، Chatbots ، Diet ، Weight Loss