Insights Into the Use of a Digital Healthy Aging Coach (AGATHA) for Older Adults From Malaysia: App Engagement, Usability, and Impact Study.

BACKGROUND: Digital inclusion is considered a pivotal social determinant of health, particularly for older adults who may face significant barriers to digital access due to physical, sensory, and social limitations. Avatar for Global Access to Technology for Healthy Aging (AGATHA) is a virtual healthy aging coach developed by the World Health Organization to address these challenges. Designed as a comprehensive virtual coach, AGATHA comprises a gamified platform that covers multiple health-related topics and modules aimed at fostering user engagement and promoting healthy aging. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the perception and user experience of Malaysian older adults in their interactions with the AGATHA app and its avatar. The focus of this study was to examine the engagement, usability, and educational impact of the app on health literacy and digital skills. METHODS: We performed a qualitative study among adults 60 years and older from suburban and rural communities across six states in Malaysia. Participants were purposefully recruited to ensure representation across various socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Each participant attended a 1-hour training session to familiarize themselves with the interface and functionalities of AGATHA. Subsequently, all participants were required to engage with the AGATHA app two to three times per week for up to 2 weeks. Upon completion of this trial phase, an in-depth interview session was conducted to gather detailed feedback on their experiences. RESULTS: Overall, the participants found AGATHA to be highly accessible and engaging. The content was reported to have a comprehensive structure and was delivered in an easily understandable and informative manner. Moreover, the participants found the app to be beneficial in enhancing their understanding pertaining to health-related issues in aging. Some key feedback gathered highlighted the need for increased interactive features that would allow for interaction with peers, better personalization of content tailored to the individual's health condition, and improvement in the user-experience design to accommodate older users' specific needs. Furthermore, enhancements in decision-support features within the app were suggested to better assist users in making health decisions. CONCLUSIONS: The prototype digital health coaching program AGATHA was well received as a user-friendly tool suitable for beginners, and was also perceived to be useful to enhance older adults' digital literacy and confidence. The findings of this study offer important insights for designing other digital health tools and interventions targeting older adults, highlighting the importance of a user-centered design and personalization to improve the adoption of digital health solutions among older adults. This study also serves as a useful starting point for further development and refinement of digital health programs aimed at fostering an inclusive, supportive digital environment for older adults.

Correction: Insights Into the Use of a Digital Healthy Aging Coach (AGATHA) for Older Adults From Malaysia: App Engagement, Usability, and Impact Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/54101.].

Blockchain technology diffusion in tourism: Evidence from early enterprise adopters and innovators.

The use cases of blockchain as an innovative technology have increasingly captured the attention of tourism enterprises. To date, the literature tends to discuss blockchain's advantages rather than how early enterprise adopters and innovators experience and perceive the technology. As such, the extent of technology diffusion is not well understood. This study critically explores the factors influencing blockchain diffusion in tourism and how blockchain innovation is diffused in tourism. We conducted semistructured interviews with founders and senior executives of tourism enterprises in the United States and Europe who are early adopters and innovators of blockchain in tourism. From the thematic analysis, our empirical findings indicate that blockchain has much to offer despite the nascent link between blockchain's business value to an enterprise's strategic plans and the limited success of use cases in tourism. We summarize the findings in a conceptual framework and offer propositions based on the antecedents (motivators and drivers and challenges and barriers) of blockchain diffusion of innovation for enterprises to achieve competitive advantage. The propositions provide a research agenda to guide the strategic implementation of blockchain.