Apps can boost healthy behaviors, if they properly engage users

Having productive conversations is the baseline in providing high quality care to patients, but can communication reach such a level through an app or website? Researchers conducted a study, published in Human Communication Research, testing the effectiveness of online health tools when using different tones.

Researchers, led by S. Shyam Sundar of Penn State University, aimed to identify the most effective method of communication for engagement.

The study included 172 undergraduate students who were assigned to one of six health risk assessment websites, each being either low, medium or high interactivity, with or without conversational tone. Using an instant messenger interface, users received messages in either low, medium or high interactivity. Low-interactively sites did not show any signs or clues there was an interaction taking place. Medium-interactivity sites showcased a user’s visual response by prompting a box labeled, “Your response.” High-interactivity sites recalled user’s previous answers by showing, “Earlier, you reported,” following their answers.

Results showed that users who had an engaging back-and-forth experience with the website were more likely to follow behavior suggestions. However, if the tone is seen as informal or casual, the tool gave users a false sense of comfort.

"This shows that delivering information on health risks through dialogue can help users get engaged with the tool and may positively affect their health," said Sundar. "In general, it speaks to the design of interactive delivery of health information that it is not only engaging, but also inspiring. When you are having this back-and-forth interaction with a system—you are having a conversation with that system. We think that interactivity has been achieved when the system's output is contingent on the user's input in a continuous, threaded way."