Ekaterina Uetova

I am a second-year PhD student at TU Dublin, advised by Dympna O’Sullivan, Lucy Hederman and Robert Ross.

My research interests lie in the areas of Linguistics, Human-Computer Interaction, Behavior Change, and Computer Science.

Currently, I am working on a study aimed at decreasing sedentary behavior in the workplace. I am investigating one of the features—a peer support group chat—and planning on modeling a multi-party turn-taking chatbot.

Prior to my PhD, I have completed a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in General and Computational Linguistics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

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Sep 2024	Presented a poster “Conversational Agents as Supportive Agents in Health-related Peer Support Groups” at the Health Care Research Seminar, Säntis, Switzerland.
Sep 2024	Started my 3-month research visit at the Centre for Digital Health Interventions, collaborating with Dr. Rasita Vinay on the GRACE project, a Voice Assistant for People with Early Dementia.
May 2024	Presented a poster at the Third ADAPT Annual Scientific Conference, Dublin, Ireland.
May 2024	Received a grant to participate in the SFI-NSF Student Mobility Programme, where I’ll be working with Professor Sean Young, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Informatics, University of California Institute, the USA.
Apr 2024	Participated in the fourth Advanced Language Processing School co-organized by LIG (Univ. Grenoble Alpes), Naver Labs Europe, and Cohere, where I presented a poster “Exploring the Role of Conversational Agents in Enhancing Social Support within Online Peer Support Groups”.

selected publications

Persuasive

The Potential and Limitations of Conversational Agents for Chronic Conditions and Well-being

Ekaterina Uetova, Lucy Hederman, Robert Ross, and 1 more author

18th International Conference on Persuasive Technology, 2023

Abs

Conversational agents are becoming more common in the health and wellness domains in part due to assumptions regarding potential improvements in individuals’ outcomes. This paper presents initial findings from a review of conversational agent use in healthcare for chronic conditions and well-being. A search of the literature was performed on electronic databases PubMed, ACM Digital Library, Scopus and IEEE Xplore. Studies were included if they were focused on chronic disorder management, disease prevention or lifestyle change and if systems were tested on target user groups. This paper investigates the health domains, the user profiles and reasons why conversational agents may be helpful in the selfmanagement of chronic disease and well-being. This paper also discusses how these tools may be used to improve the health and well-being of different groups of people.
HealthInf

Chatting for Change: Insights into and Directions for Using Online Peer Support Groups to Interrupt Prolonged Workplace Sitting

Ekaterina Uetova, Lucy Hederman, Dympna O’Sullivan, and 2 more authors

17th International Conference on Health Informatics, 2024

Abs

Prolonged sedentary behavior and insufficient physical activity increase the risk for non-communicable diseases. Online peer support groups, driven by the widespread use of mobile phones and social media, have gained popularity among people seeking health condition management advice. This position paper examines the role of online peer support groups within a behaviour change intervention, MOV’D (Move Often eVery Day), which promotes physical activity and reduces sedentary behavior in the workplace. We conducted a thematic analysis of post-study interviews from two randomized control trials to identify the benefits and limitations of online peer support groups and provide recommendations for improvement. We found that participation in online peer support groups contributes to a sense of belonging and accountability, helps to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and application of the intervention content, and serves as reminders encouraging physical activity throughout the day. However, participants do not always have enough time and cognitive resources to read all the messages and actively participate in the group chats. Individual differences also contribute to a decrease in overall chat activity, as the group chat does not always meet all participant’s preferences and needs.

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