Revolutionizing mHealth Interaction with a Gamified Chatbot: An OMO Strategy Approach

This study presents the development and implementation of a novel gamified chatbot system integrating Online Merge Offline (OMO) strategies to enhance parental nutrition knowledge and attitudes in mHealth interventions. The primary focus was designing and constructing an interactive chatbot platform that seamlessly blends online engagement with offline health seminars. The gamified chatbot, built on a social chat platform, incorporates level completion mechanisms, community rankings, and AI-driven responses to nutrition queries. It facilitates pre-tests and post-tests, provides personalized resources, and serves as a conduit for continuous learning beyond physical seminars. Eight health seminars were conducted with 20 unique participants to test the system's efficacy. Statistical analysis using paired samples t-test revealed significant improvement in nutrition knowledge scores post-intervention (p < 0.05), demonstrating the chatbot's effectiveness. The study's innovation lies in the chatbot's gamification mechanism and OMO strategy integration, where pre-test assessments not only serve as evaluation tools but also as nutrition content summaries. This approach creates a comprehensive learning ecosystem, allowing participants to engage with nutritional content through their mobile devices. These findings suggest that gamified chatbots with OMO strategies can improve parental nutrition knowledge. Future research should explore this model's applicability across diverse populations to validate its potential in technology-driven nutritional health promotion.