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General News

7 May, 2022

Pepper The Vaccine Prepper

ACCORDING to researchers, a humanoid robot called Pepper has proven an effective way to overcome vaccine hesitancy and spread health information.


Professor Nagle and Pepper
Professor Nagle and Pepper

James Cook University’s Professor Cate Nagle was part of a study that placed Pepper – a 1.4 metre tall, 28 kg robot with human-like features – inside a hospital and invited patients and staff to interact with it. 

Professor Nagle said the use of humanoid robot technologies within healthcare settings is rapidly evolving, but the potential of robots in health promotion and health education had not been well established. 

“We aimed to explore the impact of a social humanoid robot on individuals’ knowledge of influenza (flu) prevention and attitudes towards flu vaccination,” Professor Nagle said. 

Nearly a thousand people opted to communicate with Pepper answering three questions the robot asked about influenza. 

The questions related to the best way to avoid getting the flu (vaccination), how long the flu virus can live outside the human body (hours), and the length of time for handwashing to be effective against spreading germs (20 seconds). 

The robot immediately told participants if their answers were correct or incorrect. 

“The results showed a significant difference in the correct responses pre and post-test,” Professor Nagle said. 

“Importantly, the results also showed a significant difference in attitudes associated with influenza vaccination.” 

When visitors to the hospital (not staff members) were asked to respond to the importance of having an influenza vaccination before interacting with Pepper, 43.75% either strongly agreed or agreed that influenza vaccination was important. 

After interacting with the robot, this number increased to 89.96%. She said humanoids might be one way to address an emerging problem in healthcare. 

“It’s looking like traditional methods of interventions to improve health literacy may no longer be effective,” Professor Nagle said. 

“A recent Australian study showed inadequate health literacy and lower education level were significantly associated with a reluctance to be vaccinated against influenza and COVID-19.” 

Professor Nagle said using a robot could play an essential role in addressing vaccine hesitancy related to poor health literacy in the ongoing COVID-19 or other pandemics. 

“More than 99% of participants enjoyed meeting with Pepper. The information provided by the robot was also seen as accurate and trustworthy,” she said. 

“Getting the attention of the population in public health campaigns now requires health interventions that are engaging, contain quality information and are considered trustworthy. 

“From what we have seen with Pepper in this study, a humanoid robot possesses all these qualities and could be an important part of the mix  

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