Background: Digital applications are commonly used to support mental health and well-being. However, successfully retaining and engaging users to complete digital interventions is challenging, and comorbidities such as chronic pain further reduce user engagement. Digital conversational agents (CAs) may improve user engagement by applying engagement principles that have been implemented within in-person care settings.
Objective: To evaluate user retention and engagement with an artificial intelligence-led digital mental health app (Wysa for Chronic Pain) that is customized for individuals managing mental health symptoms and coexisting chronic pain.
Methods: In this ancillary survival analysis of a clinical trial, participants included 51 adults who presented to a tertiary care center for chronic musculoskeletal pain, who endorsed coexisting symptoms of depression or anxiety (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System score of ≥55 for depression or anxiety), and initiated onboarding to an 8-week subscription of Wysa for Chronic Pain. The study outcomes were user retention, defined as revisiting the app each week and on the last day of engagement, and user engagement, defined by the number of sessions the user completed.
Results: Users engaged in a cumulative mean of 33.3 sessions during the 8-week study period. The survival analysis depicted a median user retention period (i.e., time to complete disengagement) of 51 days, with the usage of a morning check-in feature having a significant relationship with a longer retention period (P=.001).
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that user retention and engagement with a CBT-based CA built for users with chronic pain is higher than standard industry metrics. These results have clear implications for addressing issues of suboptimal engagement of digital health interventions and improving access to care for chronic pain. Future work should use these findings to inform the design of evidence-based interventions for individuals with chronic pain and to enhance user retention and engagement of digital health interventions more broadly.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04640090; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04640090.
Keywords: Wysa; app; chronic pain; conversational agent; digital application; digital health; digital intervention; engagement; health intervention; mental health; retention; symptom management; user engagement.
©Chaitali Sinha, Abby L Cheng, Madhura Kadaba. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 23.05.2022.