A Goal-Based Approach for Persuasive Health-Behaviour Recommender Systems

To enhance user acceptance and facilitate behaviour change, this paper introduces a goal-based approach for designing persuasive health-behaviour recommender systems (HRS). Current HRS often fall short in supporting behaviour change, particularly in domains like nutrition and physical activity, due to their failure to integrate behavioural theories or use of ineffective recommendation strategies. To address these challenges, we propose a conceptual design model that aligns recommendations with patients’ current behaviour, short-term goals, and long-term health goals. The design model is grounded in established behaviour change theories, including the self-efficacy theory, health behaviour goal model, health belief model, self-determination theory, goal-setting theory, and feedback-intervention theory. Nine propositions are derived from these theories to guide the design of more persuasive HRS. The proposed approach emphasizes the importance of incremental, achievable goals, user autonomy, and intrinsic motivation to foster sustained behaviour change. Future work will focus on validating and refining the design model to provide a robust framework for developing effective health-behaviour recommender systems.