Healthway research funding for AI chatbot alcohol project
NDRI alcohol researcher Associate Professor Michael Livingston has been awarded Healthway funding for a project exploring the potential of an AI chatbot to collect alcohol consumption data and provide information to people seeking help.
Funded as part of 2024 Healthway Targeted Research Round Exploratory grants, the ‘Measuring alcohol risk, information needs and pathways using an AI chatbot’ project will test the effectiveness and efficiency of a chatbot as an alternative to traditional data collection methods. Data will be collected on alcohol usage and provide information to users on harms and referrals and further information for support.
“The design, implementation and evaluation of effective alcohol health promotion relies on timely quality data on prevalence, use and harms,” Michael explained. “Data collection has relied on time-intensive and costly methods subject to limitations such as response and recall bias, language and literacy barriers, and underreporting due to perceived stigma.
“The Alcohol and Drug Foundation is developing a specific Large Language Model (LLM) based chatbot to provide information about alcohol use and risks, and direct users to appropriate tailored behaviour change information.
“In partnership with the Foundation, this pilot project will assess whether its newly developed chatbot is a useful alternative to traditional survey approaches to collect data on alcohol consumption and whether it provides user-friendly information and appropriate pathways to support help-seeking behaviours.
“With more people going online for alcohol information than approaching health professionals and the potential for LLMs to enhance accessibility of health information, this pilot’s examination of the potential usefulness of innovative AI-based approaches to data collection, information provision, screening and referral is likely to have major implications for future developments in the alcohol and other drug sector.”
Healthway Research Grants support exploratory or formative studies to address gaps in health promotion research, demonstrating the potential to influence health promotion in Western Australia.
Click here to find out more about Associate Professor Michael Livingston’s research
Posted on: 2 Dec 2024
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