npj Digital Medicine (Feb 2021)

Population subgroup differences in the use of a COVID-19 chatbot

  • Laura C. Schubel,
  • Deliya B. Wesley,
  • Ethan Booker,
  • John Lock,
  • Raj M. Ratwani

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-021-00405-8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 3

Abstract

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Abstract COVID-19 chatbots are widely used to screen for symptoms and disseminate information about the virus, yet little is known about the population subgroups that interact with this technology and the specific features that are used. An analysis of 1,000,740 patients invited to use a COVID-19 chatbot, 69,451 (6.94%) of which agreed to participate, shows differences in chatbot feature use by gender, race, and age. These results can inform future public health COVID-19 symptom screening and information dissemination strategies.