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Home / American Journal of Health Behavior, Volume 47, Number 4

Open Access Health Needs Assessment: Comparison of Applications of All-in-One AI Platform during the COVID-19 Pandemic between Mainland China and Hong Kong

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Authors: Miao, Chuhan 1 ; Bo, Yan 2 ; Xu, Jingyu 3 ; Wu, Yuqian 1 ; Shen, Jiayue 4 ; Fan, Jun 5 ; Wang, Yingli 6 ; Li, Wang Tin 1 ; 

Source: American Journal of Health Behavior, Volume 47, Number 4, August 2023, pp. 777-787(11)

Publisher: PNG Publications and Scientific Research Limited

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.47.4.13

This article is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a public health hazard since 2020. Preventive measures taken in mainland China and Hong Kong to control the spread of COVID-19, including quarantine, could potentially affect people's physical and mental health. Methods: We used a snowball sampling method to investigate the experience of people in mainland China and Hong Kong using AI chatbots during the COVID-19 pandemic to obtain information on mental health related to COVID-19, the current situation, and the multi-dimensional experience of using AI chatbots. The people who participated in the survey were residents aged 18-75 in the 2 areas. Results: The effective response rate of the questionnaire was 98%. Concerning demographics, 91.1% of the target group were 18-55 years old. The most important sources of information for the respondents were WeChat and Web pages. There was no difference between Hong Kong and mainland China in terms of access to COVID-19-related mental health information (??2=0.59, p=.444), and no difference shown in access to information by gender (??2=0.01, p=.942). There was no difference in age group (??2=2.97, p=.594) and was not related to whether respondents were in the provincial capital city area (??2=0.62, p=.429). Age groups “<18 years old” and “56-65 years old” were related to giving a higher (4 or 5) score to AI text questions answering chatbot (p=.030), and there is a positive relationship between the satisfactory of AI text question answering chatbot and that of AI voice question answering chatbot (R2=0.8074, p=.038). Conclusion: There is no significant difference in the use of all-in-one AI platforms in mainland China and Hong Kong, and both have large market potential in the field of AI services for mental health. This platform is suitable for people of all ages in both regions. The results of this study provide forward-looking guidance for our team to develop robots based on an all-in-one AI platform.

Keywords: AI Platform; COVID-19; Chatbot; Mental Health; Public Health

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 2: Medical College of Northwest Minzu University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China 3: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 4: School of Health and Related Research, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom 5: Shanghai Normal University Tianhua College 6: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shanghai Xuhui Central Hospital, Shanghai, China

Publication date: August 1, 2023

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  • The American Journal of Health Behavior seeks to improve the quality of life through multidisciplinary health efforts in fostering a better understanding of the multidimensional nature of both individuals and social systems as they relate to health behaviors.

    The Journal aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of personal attributes, personality characteristics, behavior patterns, social structure, and processes on health maintenance, health restoration, and health improvement; to disseminate knowledge of holistic, multidisciplinary approaches to designing and implementing effective health programs; and to showcase health behavior analysis skills that have been proven to affect health improvement and recovery.

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