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Ontological Review of Persuasion Support Systems (PSS) for Health Behavior Change through Physical Activity

  • Patient Facing Systems
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Abstract

Persuasion Support Systems (PSS) for health behavior change can play an important role in promoting health and well-being through physical activity. It is an emerging application at the crossroad between information systems, persuasion, and healthcare. We propose an ontology to systematically and systemically describe the construct of PSS for health behavior change. The ontology deconstructs the construct into its constituent dimensions and elements, and assembles them into a complete, parsimonious description of the same. We then map the corpus of literature on PSS for health behavior change through physical activity onto the ontology. The resulting ontological map highlights the research topics that are highly- and lightly-emphasized, as well as those with little or no emphasis. It illuminates the landscape of research in the corpus; it highlights biases in emphases that can help and hinder the advancement of the corpus. It can be used to develop a roadmap for future research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Khin Than Win & Arkalgud Ramaprasad

  2. University of Illinois - Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Arkalgud Ramaprasad

  3. Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX, USA

    Thant Syn

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Appendix 1: Glossary

Appendix 1: Glossary

Information System Support: Support provided by persuasive support systems

 Task:

  Reduction: Reduce effort users expend when performing target behavior

  Tunneling: Guide users in attitude change by providing means for action that brings them closer to target behavior

  Tailoring: Provide tailored info for user groups

  Personalization: Offer personalized content and services for users

  Self-monitoring: Provide means for users to track their performance or status

  Simulation: Provide means for observing link between cause & effect with regard to users’ behavior

  Rehearsal: Provide means for rehearsing target behavior

 Dialog:

  Suggestion: Suggest users carry out behaviors while using the system

  Similarity: Imitate its users in some specific way

  Praise: Use praise via words, images, symbols, sounds to provide user feedback based on behaviors

  Rewards: Provide virtual rewards for users to give credit for performing target behavior

  Liking: Have a look & feel that appeals to users

  Reminders: Remind users of their target behavior while using the system

  Support: Adopt a social role

 System:

  Expertise: Provide info showing knowledge, experience & competence

  Verifiability: Provide means to verify accuracy of site content via outside sources

  Surface Credibility: Have competent look & feel

  Real-World Feel: Provide info of the organization/actual people behind it content & services

  Trustworthiness: Provide info that is truthful, fair & unbiased

  Authority: Refer to people in the role of authority

  Endorsements: Provide endorsements from respected sources

 Social:

  Recognition: Provide public recognition for users who perform their target behavior

  Facilitation: Provide means for discerning others who are performing the behavior

  Cooperation: Provide means for co-operation

  Competition: Provide means for competing with others

  Learning: Provide means to observe others performing their target behaviors to see outcome of their behavior

  Comparison: Provide means for comparing performance with the performance of others

  Influence: Provide means for gathering people who have same goal & make them feel norms

Persuasion: Persuade the user

 Action: Persuasive action of the system

  Reinforce: Reinforce the object of persuasion

  Modify: Modify the object of persuasion

  Change: Change the object of persuasion

 Focus: Focus of the persuasion

  Knowledge: Knowledge of the user

  Attitude: Attitude of the user

  Behavior: Behavior of the user

Health: Outcomes of healthcare of users

 Quality: Quality of healthcare of users

 Safety: Safety of healthcare of users

 Cost: Cost of healthcare of users

 Parity: Parity of healthcare of users

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Win, K.T., Ramaprasad, A. & Syn, T. Ontological Review of Persuasion Support Systems (PSS) for Health Behavior Change through Physical Activity. J Med Syst 43, 49 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1159-y

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