WeightMentor: A New Automated Chatbot for Weight Loss Maintenance

Obesity and Overweight !are significant risk factors for many chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. Weight loss is difficult and maintaining weight loss is a greater challenge. Effective communication is hindered by conflicting information and the sensitivity of the subject of obesity. Recent technological solutions for weight loss maintenance are limited. A chatbot would be appropriate for supporting weight loss as it does not require a human operator, is available 24 hours a day, and supports natural communication while maintaining anonymity. Such a system may also be integrated with popular social media platforms such as Facebook Messenger. This paper describes the design and development of the WeightMentor chatbot, a self-help motivational tool for weight loss maintenance. Chatbots may have the potential to contribute to obesity prevention and management.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Samuel Holmes

Anne Moorhead

Raymond Bond

Huiru Zheng

Vivien Coates

Mike McTear

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

[0001]School of Communication & Media

Ulster University

[0002]School of Communication & Media/Institute of Nursing & Health Research

Ulster University

[0003]School of Computing

Ulster University

[0004]School of Nursing/Institute of Nursing & Health Research

Ulster University

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.103

SO-VID: 9291872b-e311-4ff8-b605-b47b1cc73724

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 32

Conference location: Belfast, UK

Conference date: 4 - 6 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.103

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

E.C. Cussler P.J. Teixeira S.B. Going L.B. Houtkooper L.L. Metcalfe R.M. Blew J.R. Ricketts J. Lohman V.A. Stanford & T.G. Lohman 2008, “Maintenance of weight loss in overweight middle-aged women through the Internet”, Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 1052–1060.
J. de Niet R. Timman S. Bauer E. van den Akker H. Buijks, de C. Klerk H. Kordy & J. Passchier 2012, “The effect of a short message service maintenance treatment on body mass index and psychological well-being in overweight and obese children: a randomized controlled trial.”, Pediatric Obesity, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 205–219.
E.L. Donaldson S. Fallows & M. Morris 2014, “A text message-based weight management intervention for overweight adults.”, Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, vol. 27, no. Suppl 2, pp. 90–97.
B.S. Fjeldsoe A.D. Goode P. Phongsavan A. Bauman G. Maher E. Winkler & E.G. Eakin 2016, “Evaluating the Maintenance of Lifestyle Changes in a Randomized Controlled Trial of the 'Get Healthy, Stay Healthy' Program.”, JMIR MHealth and UHealth, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. e42.
J.P. Fry & R.A. Neff 2009, “Periodic prompts and reminders in health promotion and health behavior interventions: systematic review”, Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. e16.
R.J. Moore R. Arar G. Ren & M.H. Szymanski 2017, “Conversational UX Design”, Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 492.
S. Moorhead V. Coates A. Gallagher G. Nolan K. Murphy & D. Hazlett 2013, “Obesity communication among patients by health professionals: Findings from the Weight Care Project”, Health, vol. 5, no. 8C, pp. 100–109.
NHS Choices 2016 Obesity. Available: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obesity/Pages/Introduction.aspx.
Personetics 2016 How Chatbots Fit into Your Omnichannel Strategy. Available: http://personetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Personetics-Omnichannel-Bot-Brief.pdf.
B. Shneiderman C. Plaisant M. Cohen S. Jacobs & N. Elmqvist 2016 Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction Sixth edition edn, Pearson.
K.L. Smith D.A. Kerr A.A. Fenner & L.M. Straker 2014, “Adolescents just do not know what they want: a qualitative study to describe obese adolescents' experiences of text messaging to support behavior change maintenance post intervention.”, Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. e103.
J. Stephens & J. Allen 2015, “Young adults, technology, and weight loss: A focus group study”, (var.pagings). 131 (no pagination); Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Circulation. Conference: American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health 2015 Scientific Sessions Baltimore, MD United States. Conference Publication.
Svetkey LP Stevens VJ Brantley PJ,et al 2008, “Comparison of strategies for sustaining weight loss: The weight loss maintenance randomized controlled trial”, JAMA, vol. 299, no. 10, pp. 1139–1148.
D. Thomas V. Vydelingum & J. Lawrence 2011, “E-mail contact as an effective strategy in the maintenance of weight loss in adults.”, Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 32–38.
Wharton University of Pennsylvania 2016 The Rise of the Chatbots: Is It Time to Embrace Them? Available: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/rise-chatbots-time-embrace/.
R.R. Wing D.F. Tate A.A. Gorin H.A. Raynor & J.L. Fava 2006, “A self-regulation program for maintenance of weight loss”, The New England journal of medicine, vol. 355, no. 15, pp. 1563–1571.
World Health Organisation June 2016 Obesity & Overweight Fact Sheet. Available: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] E.C. Cussler P.J. Teixeira S.B. Going L.B. Houtkooper L.L. Metcalfe R.M. Blew J.R. Ricketts J. Lohman V.A. Stanford & T.G. Lohman 2008, “Maintenance of weight loss in overweight middle-aged women through the Internet”, Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 1052–1060.

[2] J. de Niet R. Timman S. Bauer E. van den Akker H. Buijks, de C. Klerk H. Kordy & J. Passchier 2012, “The effect of a short message service maintenance treatment on body mass index and psychological well-being in overweight and obese children: a randomized controlled trial.”, Pediatric Obesity, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 205–219.

[3] E.L. Donaldson S. Fallows & M. Morris 2014, “A text message-based weight management intervention for overweight adults.”, Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, vol. 27, no. Suppl 2, pp. 90–97.

[4] B.S. Fjeldsoe A.D. Goode P. Phongsavan A. Bauman G. Maher E. Winkler & E.G. Eakin 2016, “Evaluating the Maintenance of Lifestyle Changes in a Randomized Controlled Trial of the 'Get Healthy, Stay Healthy' Program.”, JMIR MHealth and UHealth, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. e42.

[5] J.P. Fry & R.A. Neff 2009, “Periodic prompts and reminders in health promotion and health behavior interventions: systematic review”, Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. e16.

[6] R.J. Moore R. Arar G. Ren & M.H. Szymanski 2017, “Conversational UX Design”, Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 492.

[7] S. Moorhead V. Coates A. Gallagher G. Nolan K. Murphy & D. Hazlett 2013, “Obesity communication among patients by health professionals: Findings from the Weight Care Project”, Health, vol. 5, no. 8C, pp. 100–109.

[8] NHS Choices 2016 Obesity. Available: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obesity/Pages/Introduction.aspx.

[9] Personetics 2016 How Chatbots Fit into Your Omnichannel Strategy. Available: http://personetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Personetics-Omnichannel-Bot-Brief.pdf.

[10] B. Shneiderman C. Plaisant M. Cohen S. Jacobs & N. Elmqvist 2016 Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction Sixth edition edn, Pearson.

[11] K.L. Smith D.A. Kerr A.A. Fenner & L.M. Straker 2014, “Adolescents just do not know what they want: a qualitative study to describe obese adolescents' experiences of text messaging to support behavior change maintenance post intervention.”, Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. e103.

[12] J. Stephens & J. Allen 2015, “Young adults, technology, and weight loss: A focus group study”, (var.pagings). 131 (no pagination); Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Circulation. Conference: American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health 2015 Scientific Sessions Baltimore, MD United States. Conference Publication.

[13] Svetkey LP Stevens VJ Brantley PJ,et al 2008, “Comparison of strategies for sustaining weight loss: The weight loss maintenance randomized controlled trial”, JAMA, vol. 299, no. 10, pp. 1139–1148.

[14] D. Thomas V. Vydelingum & J. Lawrence 2011, “E-mail contact as an effective strategy in the maintenance of weight loss in adults.”, Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 32–38.

[15] Wharton University of Pennsylvania 2016 The Rise of the Chatbots: Is It Time to Embrace Them? Available: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/rise-chatbots-time-embrace/.

[16] R.R. Wing D.F. Tate A.A. Gorin H.A. Raynor & J.L. Fava 2006, “A self-regulation program for maintenance of weight loss”, The New England journal of medicine, vol. 355, no. 15, pp. 1563–1571.

[17] World Health Organisation June 2016 Obesity & Overweight Fact Sheet. Available: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.

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