Loading...
2 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
- Social robots as health promoting agents: An application of the health action process approach to human-robot interaction at the workplacePublication . Lopes, Sara L.; Ferreira, Aristides I.; Prada, Rui; Schwarzer, RalfABSTRACT: Technological innovations may have the potential to improve health behavior interventions at the workplace. Using a robot as a health communicator who interacts with target individuals may be sometimes superior to human change agents. Embedded in a health behavior theory that accounts for motivational and volitional processes, an innovative study has been designed to explore operating principles and intervention effects in the domains of dietary habits, tobacco consumption, physical inactivity, and stress and anxiety. A single-arm intervention with two assessment points in time, one month apart, has been conducted with 37 employees. They were confronted with a robot that delivered a supportive interaction with the study participants addressing one of the four behavioral domains. The intervention content was pre-tested and inspired by the health action process approach (HAPA). Self-report measures of all social-cognitive constructs such as self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, risk perception, behavioral intentions, and planning were applied. Pre-post comparisons confirmed the assumption of improved scores on motivational and volitional outcome variables. Moreover, mediation analyses underscored the pivotal role of behavioral intentions that translated motivational antecedents into volitional outcomes. The intervention study highlighted the innovative potential that robots may have when it comes to design theory-based health promotion strategies at the workplace. Moreover, results also confirmed basic assumptions of the health action process approach.
- The use of robots in the workplace: Conclusions from a health promoting intervention using Social RobotsPublication . Lopes, Sara L.; Ferreira, Aristides I.; Prada, RuiWorkplace wellness programs constitute a preventive measure to help avoid healthcare costs for companies, with additional benefits for employee productivity and other organizational outcomes. Interventions using social robots may have some advantages over other conventional telemedicine applications, since they can deliver personalized feedback and counseling. This investigation focused on a health-promoting intervention within work environments, and compared the efficacy of the intervention on two distinct groups, one guided by a human agent and the other by a robot agent. Participants (n = 56) were recruited from two Portuguese organizations and led through eight sessions by the social agent, the goal being to encourage health behavior change and adoption of a healthier lifestyle. The results indicate that the group led by the robot agent revealed better post-intervention scores than the group led by the human agent, specifically with regard to productivity despite presenteeism and regard of their level of mental well-being. No effects were found concerning the work engagement level of participants in either group. By demonstrating the potential of using social robots to establish therapeutic and worth relationships with employees in their workplaces, this study provides interesting new findings that contribute to the literature on health behavior change and human–robot interaction.