Examining the role of ChatGPT in promoting health behaviors and lifestyle changes among cancer patients.

This study aims to investigate the role of ChatGPT in promoting health behavioral changes among cancer patients. A quasi-experiment design with qualitative approach was adopted in this study, as the ChatGPT technology is novel, and many people are unaware of it. The participants included outpatients at a public hospital. An experiment was carried out, where the participants used ChatGPT for seeking cancer related information for two weeks, which is then followed by focus group (FG) discussions. A total of 72 outpatients participated in ten focus groups. Three main themes with 14 sub-themes were identified reflecting the role of ChatGPT in promoting health behavior changes. Its prominent role was observed in developing health literacy, promoting self-management of conditions through emotional, informational, motivational support. Three challenges including privacy, lack of personalization, and reliability issues were identified. Although ChatGPT has a huge potential in promoting health behavior changes among cancer patients, its ability is minimized by several factors such as regulatory, reliability, and privacy issues. There is a need for further evidence to generalize the results across the regions.