Nthabi — AI Conversational Agent for Young Women's Health Education (Lesotho)

Nthabi is a Sesotho-speaking, culturally adapted virtual health educator — a Mosotho nurse-midwife character — delivered via smartphone or tablet to young women in rural Lesotho. It adapts "Gabby", a US-developed conversational-agent system, through a collaboration between Sefako Makgatho University of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston University/Boston Medical Center, the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, funded by the US NIH Fogarty International Center (award R21TW011361).
A clinical trial enrolled 172 women aged 18-28 (mean 22.5) in the rural districts of Leribe and Berea; 160 used Nthabi and 157 began interactions with the agent over up to six weeks, discussing family planning, folic acid and healthy eating. Participants were mostly unmarried (91%) and about two-thirds were students.
Pre/post knowledge testing found a statistically significant increase in family-planning knowledge (76.6% to 89.9% correct, p=0.0233) and a larger significant increase in folic-acid knowledge (45.3% to 71.6% correct, p<0.0001). Healthy-eating knowledge rose only marginally and was not statistically significant (69.5% to 72.6%, p=0.421) — the researchers report this honestly rather than omitting it. A companion published study found the cultural adaptation — the character's appearance, Sesotho language and idioms, and clinical content — was rated appropriate and acceptable by participants. The trial remains a research-stage evaluation; there is no published evidence yet of routine deployment beyond the study population.

Read the full analysis: https://bmcglobalpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s44263-024-00091-0