MyPal: A Digital Diabetes Diary with a Responsive Social Avatar
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2016-07-13
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en
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Abstract
Diabetes Mellitus type I is an incurable disease that can be diagnosed at a young age. A structured lifestyle, where insulin use, carbohydrate intake and blood glucose are regularly monitored, is the only path to a relatively normal life. Children and their parents must remain vigilant. This lifestyle is especially demanding for children and not every child is as good in self-management as they need to be. They can use some help with this.
MyPAL is a digital diabetes diary that children can use to record their insulin use, carbohydrate intake and blood glucose values as well as write something about their day and how they feel. With that information the children can more easily link their diabetes values, what they eat and how they feel together. With this insight they can manage their insulin use and diet more efficiently. Besides children also medical professionals, parents and researchers benefit from this information. For example, a diabetes nurse can improve the treatment plan, parents can get a better idea how their child is doing and researchers can investigate the relationship between food, mood and blood glucose values more closely.
The only constraint is that the required information is added regularly. And if children find something difficult it is consistently keeping a diary. One of the most mentioned causes of why children have trouble to consistency use a diabetes diary is the lack of motivation. MyPAL provides several solutions for this problem. Following the situated Cognitive Engineering (sCE) design method, myPAL is specifically designed to support the development of motivation.
The first deliverable included in this thesis are the system specifications of myPAL. These specifications are based on operational demands, human-factor knowledge, and technological principles. The self-determination theory, that identified the feeling of autonomy, competence and relatedness as antecedents of motivation, is the largest human-factor contribution. An avatar, a technological principle, is used to support those antecedents of motivation. By autonomously responding to the added content in a social fashion, e.g. matching the gestures and speech of the avatar appropriately to the mood of the child, children feel more supported in their competence and relatedness.
The second deliverable is a thorough evaluation of the avatar behaviors and its effects on the attitude of the children towards the robot, motivation support and performance. Performance is measured in terms of the amount and the consistency of the added content. A three-week user study with 13 children with diabetes was performed for this evaluation. Results show that almost all the avatar behaviors are picked up by the children and that those behaviors positively affect the motivation and performance of the children.
The final deliverables are two design recommendations that have been found to modulate the effectiveness of myPAL. The first is avatar quality over quantity. The avatar behavior must be appreciated by the children in order to be effective. Simply showing to avatar more does not increase the appreciation. The behavior must match the children’s preferences. The second recommendation is avatar sociability is key. The more social the behavior of the avatar is, the more it is appreciated by the child and the more motivated the children are to add more content consistently.
The system specifications, evaluation and design recommendations bring the sustainable application of autonomous avatars in diabetes care a step closer to being realized.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen