{"doi":"10.2196/52048","title":"Usability and Acceptability of a Conversational Agent Health Education App (Nthabi) for Young Women in Lesotho: Quantitative Study","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Young women in Lesotho face myriad sexual and reproductive health problems. There is little time to provide health education to women in low-resource settings with critical shortages of human resources for health. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the acceptability and usability of a conversational agent system, the Nthabi health promotion app, which was culturally adapted for use in Lesotho. METHODS: tests were used to determine any associations among variables. RESULTS: A total of 138 participants were enrolled and completed the survey. The mean age was 22 years, most were unmarried, 56 (40.6%) participants had completed high school, 39 (28.3%) participants were unemployed, and 88 (63.8%) participants were students. Respondents believed the app was helpful, with 134 (97.1%) participants strongly agreeing or agreeing that the app was \"effective in helping them make decisions\" and \"could quickly improve health education and counselling.\" In addition, 136 (98.5%) participants strongly agreed or agreed that the app was \"simple to use,\" 130 (94.2 %) participants reported that Nthabi could \"easily repeat words that were not well understood,\" and 128 (92.7%) participants reported that the app \"could quickly load the information on the screen.\" Respondents were generally satisfied with the app, with 132 (95.6%) participants strongly agreeing or agreeing that the health education content delivered by the app was \"well organised and delivered in a timely way,\" while 133 (96.4%) participants \"enjoyed using the interface.\" They were satisfied with the cultural adaptation, with 133 (96.4%) participants strongly agreeing or agreeing that the app was \"culturally appropriate and that it could be easily shared with a family or community members.\" They also reported that Nthabi was worthwhile, with 127 (92%) participants reporting that they strongly agreed or agreed that they were \"satisfied with the application and intended to continue using it,\" while 135 (97.8%) participants would \"encourage others to use it.\" Participants aged 18-24 years (vs those aged 25-28 years) agreed that the \"Nthabi app was simple to use\" (106/106, 100% vs 30/32, 98.8%; P=.01), and agreed that \"the educational content was well organised and delivered in a timely way\" (104/106, 98.1% vs 28/32, 87.5%; P=.01). CONCLUSIONS: These results support further study of conversational agent systems as alternatives to traditional face-to-face provision of health education services in Lesotho, where there are critical shortages of human resources for health. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04354168; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04354168.","journal":null,"year":2023,"id":371911,"datarank":0.4201499060239777,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"self_citation_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citation_network_contribution":0.1282633836656807,"self_endowment_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citer_contribution":0.1282633836656807,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":4,"citers_with_citation_signal":3,"citers_with_endowment":3,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9583,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"ClinicalTrials.gov":["NCT04354168"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1087698,"name":"Mathildah Mpata Mokgatle","orcid":"0000-0001-5807-8212","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432440,"name":"Brian W. Jack","orcid":"0000-0002-6497-2437","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486395,"name":"Clevanne Julce","orcid":"0000-0001-5633-8252","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486393,"name":"Timothy Bickmore","orcid":"0000-0002-2676-9788","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1131960,"name":"Elizabeth Nkabane-Nkholongo","orcid":"0000-0003-4894-9162","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":32,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:15:49.453761Z","pmid":"38470460","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}