Acceptability of Persuasive Prompts to Induce Behavioral Change in People Suffering from Depression

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing concern regarding the increased occurrence of mental health disorders amongst the population worldwide and its debilitating effects on not only the individual suffering from it but also on the economy. Depression, being the most prevalent mental illness, urges the need to test different methodologies to try and tackle the issue. One such method is the adoption of persuasive behavioral change models in prompts for mHealth applications to assist in ‘prompting’ the user to adopt healthier behaviors. However, the acceptability of such persuasive prompts along with the selection of behavioral change models most suitable for people suffering through depression is unknown. In this work, we present the results of a cross- sectional acceptability study that tested the acceptability of persuasive prompts through two types of users: ones suffering from depression and ones without any depressive symptoms. In a study with 29 individuals without depression and 21 individuals with depression, we observed the differences between the results of both types of users and were able to show that not only were the prompts accepted by both users, but they have the potential to induce behavioral change.