背景:大流行期间出现了COVID-19信息和疫苗获取方面的差异。来自历史上被排除在外的社区的个人(例如,黑人和拉丁美洲人)经历了与COVID-19相关的不成比例的负面健康结果。应优先考虑社区在COVID-19教育以及社会和医疗保健服务(包括疫苗)方面的差距,这是结束大流行的一项关键努力。COVID-19政治化和相关公共卫生措施造成的错误信息放大了大流行的挑战,包括获得医疗保健,疫苗接种和检测工作,和个人防护设备。信息和通信技术(ICT)已被证明可以减少社区之间在教育和获取方面的边缘化差距。聊天机器人是越来越多的信息通信技术的例子,特别是在医疗保健和与COVID-19大流行有关的领域。
目标:该项目旨在:(1)遵循包容性和理论驱动的设计过程,开发和测试一种名为“Ana”的COVID-19信息ICT双语(英语/西班牙语)Chatbot工具,以及(2)表征和评估这些创新技术的用户体验。
方法:\"Ana\"是根据多理论框架制定的,项目团队由公共卫生专家组成,行为科学家,社区成员,和医疗队。总共测试了7次β聊天机器人迭代,总共22位测试人员参与了这一过程。策划内容主要是为了向用户提供有关COVID-19常见问题的事实答案。为了确保内容的相关性,话题由社区关注和问题驱动,通过研究确定。“安娜的”教育内容库基于国家和国际组织,以及跨学科专家。在这个开发和试点项目的背景下,我们确定了一个评估框架来探索覆盖范围,订婚,和满意度。
结果:从2021年8月到2022年3月,共有626名社区成员使用了“Ana”。在这些参与者346中使用了英文版本,每月平均有43个用户;280名参与者使用西班牙语版本,平均每月有40个用户。在所有用户中,63.87%(N=221)的英语用户和22.14%(N=62)的西班牙语用户至少一次返回使用Ana。在英文版18.49%(N=64)和西班牙语版18.57%(N=52)中报告了他们的排名。正面排名包括“笑脸”和“被爱”表情符号,负面排名包括“中立”,\"\"悲伤,\"和\"疯狂\"表情符号。当比较消极和积极的经历时,后者在安娜的平台上更高[英语64.06%(N=41),西班牙语77.35%(N=41)]与前者[英语35.93%(N=23),西班牙语22.64%(N=12)]。
结论:该试点项目证明了创新ICT在不同社区内共享COVID-19信息的可行性和能力。创建一个像“Ana”这样的具有双语内容的聊天机器人有助于采取公平的方法来解决缺乏可访问的COVID-19相关信息的问题。
BACKGROUND: Disparities in COVID-19 information and vaccine access have emerged during the pandemic. Individuals from historically excluded communities (eg, Black and Latin American) experience disproportionately negative health outcomes related to COVID-19. Community gaps in COVID-19 education, social, and health care services (including vaccines) should be prioritized as a critical effort to end the pandemic. Misinformation created by the politicization of COVID-19 and related public health measures has magnified the pandemic\'s challenges, including access to health care, vaccination and testing efforts, as well as personal protective equipment. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been demonstrated to reduce the gaps of marginalization in education and access among communities. Chatbots are an increasingly present example of ICTs, particularly in health care and in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
OBJECTIVE: This project aimed to (1) follow an inclusive and theoretically driven design process to develop and test a COVID-19 information ICT bilingual (English and Spanish) chatbot tool named \"Ana\" and (2) characterize and evaluate user experiences of these innovative technologies.
METHODS: Ana was developed following a multitheoretical framework, and the project team was comprised of public health experts, behavioral scientists, community members, and medical team. A total of 7 iterations of ß chatbots were tested, and a total of 22 ß testers participated in this process. Content was curated primarily to provide users with factual answers to common questions about COVID-19. To ensure relevance of the content, topics were driven by community concerns and questions, as ascertained through research. Ana\'s repository of educational content was based on national and international organizations as well as interdisciplinary experts. In the context of this development and pilot project, we identified an evaluation framework to explore reach, engagement, and satisfaction.
RESULTS: A total of 626 community members used Ana from August 2021 to March 2022. Among those participants, 346 used the English version, with an average of 43 users per month; and 280 participants used the Spanish version, with an average of 40 users monthly. Across all users, 63.87% (n=221) of English users and 22.14% (n=62) of Spanish users returned to use Ana at least once; 18.49% (n=64) among the English version users and 18.57% (n=52) among the Spanish version users reported their ranking. Positive ranking comprised the \"smiley\" and \"loved\" emojis, and negative ranking comprised the \"neutral,\" \"sad,\" and \"mad\" emojis. When comparing negative and positive experiences, the latter was higher across Ana\'s platforms (English: n=41, 64.06%; Spanish: n=41, 77.35%) versus the former (English: n=23, 35.93%; Spanish: n=12, 22.64%).
CONCLUSIONS: This pilot project demonstrated the feasibility and capacity of an innovative ICT to share COVID-19 information within diverse communities. Creating a chatbot like Ana with bilingual content contributed to an equitable approach to address the lack of accessible COVID-19-related information.