Rosie the Chatbot: Leveraging Automated and Personalized Health Information Communication

NCT06053515 | Completed DMC

• 2 other identifiers: 5R01MD016037-033R01MD016037-03S1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 400
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Rosie the Chatbot is an educational chatbot that moms can have on their computers or cellphones and will work by moms typing in their questions about pregnancy, health, infant milestones, and other variety of health related topics and receiving back a response immediately. Rosie only provides information from verified sources such as children's hospitals, health organizations and government agencies. Rosie does not ask moms to provide any personal information on her or her child, her chat is completely confidential, it works in English and Spanish and will be free.

Conditions

Pregnancy; Postpartum Depression; Infant Development; Infant Conditions

Keywords

chatbot; health information; racial/ethnic health disparities; maternal and child health; artificial intelligence; question-answering models

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Maternal postpartum depression

  The investigators will utilize the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Scale to measure maternal depression. This scale can range from 0 to 27, since each of the 9 items can be scored from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). Higher scores indicate worse depression severity.

  12 months post randomization

• Number of emergency room visits

  The investigators will measure the number of visits to the emergency room.

  12 months post randomization

• Attendance of well-baby visits (preventive healthcare visits)

  The investigators will measure the number of well-baby visits.

  12 months post randomization

Study Arms (2)

Rosie the Chatbot Group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in the Rosie the Chatbot Group will be taking a pre-test health survey, mid-test health survey, and post-test health survey. In addition, they will be expected to actively use the chatbot app by asking questions related to maternal and infant health and selecting "thumbs up or thumbs down" to provide feedback for questions' response and using the features (video library, resources page, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and daily syllabus).

Behavioral: Rosie the Chatbot

Book Club Group

NO INTERVENTION

Participants in the Book Club Group will be taking a pre-test health survey, mid-test health survey, and post-test health survey. In addition, they will receive a monthly children's book, which they are expected to read with baby if parenting or individually if pregnant.

Interventions

Rosie the Chatbot BEHAVIORAL

Participants in the intervention group will be using the chatbot to ask questions related to the mom and baby's health, provide feedback "selecting thumbs up or thumbs down" on the questions' response, and use the features (video library, resources page, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and daily syllabus). In addition, participants will be taking a pre-test health survey, mid-test health survey, and post-test health survey.

Rosie the Chatbot Group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 14 Years - 99 Years
• Gender Eligibility Details: Female at birth
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Age 14 years and older
• Racial minority women
• Pregnant or has an infant \< 6 months
• Must be able to read English or Spanish

You may not qualify if:

• Mother younger than 14 years of age at time of child's birth.
• Non-hispanic white

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Maryland, College Park: lead
• National Institutes of Health (NIH): collaborator
• National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Maryland

College Park, Maryland, 20742, United States

Location

Related Publications (4)

• Mane HY, Channell Doig A, Marin Gutierrez FX, Jasczynski M, Yue X, Srikanth NP, Mane S, Sun A, Moats RA, Patel P, He X, Boyd-Graber JL, Aparicio EM, Nguyen QC. Practical Guidance for the Development of Rosie, a Health Education Question-and-Answer Chatbot for New Mothers. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2023 Sep-Oct 01;29(5):663-670. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001781.

  PMID: 37478093 BACKGROUND

• Peters CJ, Aldana Lainez V, Clark K, Jasczynski M, Nguyen QC, Norell EM. Using an AI-powered Mobile Application Chatbot to Address Maternal Depression Indicators and Inquiries in the Perinatal and Postpartum Periods: A Multimethod Analysis. Inquiry. 2026 Jan-Dec;63:469580261417580. doi: 10.1177/00469580261417580. Epub 2026 Jan 29.

  PMID: 41607314 DERIVED

• Nguyen QC, Norell EM, Mane H, Yue X, Srikanth NP, Peters CJ, Gutierrez FXM, Kurella E, Dipankar P, Salazar D, Mullaputi PSP, Alibilli A, Santhosh A, He X, Boyd-Graber J, Nguyen TT. Developing an artificial intelligence-powered question-and-answer chatbot with English-Spanish capabilities for new mothers. JAMIA Open. 2026 Jan 6;9(1):ooaf169. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaf169. eCollection 2026 Feb.

  PMID: 41502532 DERIVED

• Nguyen QC, Aparicio EM, Jasczynski M, Channell Doig A, Yue X, Mane H, Srikanth N, Gutierrez FXM, Delcid N, He X, Boyd-Graber J. Rosie, a Health Education Question-and-Answer Chatbot for New Mothers: Randomized Pilot Study. JMIR Form Res. 2024 Jan 12;8:e51361. doi: 10.2196/51361.

  PMID: 38214963 DERIVED

Related Links

• Rosie aims to help close the racial gap in maternal and infant health disparities by providing new mothers with easy access to reliable health information.

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Depression, Postpartum

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Puerperal Disorders; Pregnancy Complications; Female Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy Complications; Urogenital Diseases; Depressive Disorder; Mood Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Quynh C Nguyen, PhD

  University of Maryland

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Elizabeth M Aparicio, PhD, LCSW-C

  University of Maryland

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 15, 2023
• First Posted: September 25, 2023
• Study Start: October 13, 2023
• Primary Completion: January 23, 2026
• Study Completion: January 23, 2026
• Last Updated: May 5, 2026

Record last verified: 2024-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)