Use of Chatbot for Addressing Adolescent’s Queries on Sexual and Reproductive Health-related Issues – Findings from a Field Implementation in Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

As per the Census of 2011, adolescent and young people (10–24 years of age) constitute around 30% of the India’s population. Young people face number of challenges in accessing information on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) due to associated taboos. To address these challenges, an initiative was launched to provide life skill-based education to the adolescent across 120 villages in two districts of Madhya Pradesh. After the program implementation for a year, it was observed that adolescents were not comfortable during the SRH sessions. Hence, after discussion with adolescents a chatbot was designed and launched. The chatbot had access to more than 9000 question and answers including audio and video materials. After 6 months, a brief assessment was undertaken with 2047 adolescent (boys - 1186 and girls - 861) to assess its relevance and usefulness. The concept of chatbot was appreciated by 93% of the respondents and they prefer it instead of having face-to-face conversation with counselor or health-care providers. About 90% respondents appreciated the fact that it is easily accessible, 87% respondents appreciated that it has comprehensive information and 86% respondents found chat messages appropriate. About 24% respondents were worried that as their family members may see their chats. About 38% respondents also expressed the need of making it multilingual and support some regional languages. Chatbot can be very powerful medium to address adolescent’s queries on SRH-related issues as it is easily accessible, and adolescent feel more comfortable. At the same time, it needs to be backed with quality service provision.