Acceptance of a social robot for improving health behaviors in children.

Social robots enable engaging natural interactions with humans, and therefore they can promote interactive guidance, motivation and education. However, little is known about the acceptability of social robots encouraging changes on health behaviours in children. We present a study to examine the acceptance of social robots towards improving the health behaviors of children. 99 children 9-12 years old participated in the study. A social robot was programmed to show an interactive quiz for health education and assessment of behaviors in mental health and physical activity. The robot was able to provide motivational feedback to the children and recommend individualized goals. Children highly liked the robot overall on a 5-point scale (4.8±0.6). The movement and talking capabilities of the robot were liked the most. Interestingly, older children (11-12 years old) were significantly more interested in the playing capabilities of the robot than their younger counterparts (9-10 years old) (p=0.001). The results of this study show the high acceptability of social robots for health promotion by children, and the need for the conduction of further studies in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]