Women’s knowledge and attitude scale toward ai-based chatbot systems in preconception counseling: A scale development study

Imagine you are trying to learn how to bake the perfect cake, but instead of asking a human baker, you decide to ask a super-smart robot. This robot, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), can chat with you, answer your questions, and give you recipes instantly. This is the world of "digital health," where computers try to help us make better choices about our bodies. But here's the tricky part: just because a robot can talk doesn't mean we trust it. We have to wonder: Is the robot telling the truth? Will it keep our secrets safe? And do we even know enough about how robots work to use them correctly?

This is especially important when the topic is something as delicate as "preconception counseling." Think of this as the "pre-game" for having a baby. It's the time when people plan for a future family, learning about healthy habits, nutrition, and risks before they even get pregnant. It's a big deal because what happens now can affect the health of a baby years down the road. But getting good advice isn't always easy; sometimes there aren't enough doctors, or people can't afford to see them. So, scientists are asking: Could these AI chatbots be the helpful sidekicks we need? To find out, we first need to know what regular people think about them. Do they feel excited? Scared? Or just confused?

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The Robot Recipe Test: Measuring Trust in a Chatbot

Two researchers, Ebru and Güleser, decided to build a special "ruler" to measure exactly how women feel about these AI chatbots when it comes to planning for a baby. They didn't just ask a few friends; they created a scientific tool called the PC-AICBS-KAS (which is a mouthful, so let's just call it the "Robot Trust Ruler").

They gathered a group of 474 women, all between 18 and 45 years old, and asked them to fill out an online survey. To make sure their ruler was accurate, they split the group in half. They used the first half to figure out what the ruler should look like (like sketching a map), and the second half to test if the map actually worked (like walking the path to see if it leads somewhere).

What did they find?
The ruler turned out to be a great tool, and it measured three distinct things, like three different flavors in an ice cream cone:

1. The "I Want to Use It" Flavor (Acceptance and Intention): This measures how much someone actually wants to use the chatbot. Do they feel comfortable asking it questions about weight, exercise, or nutrition? The study found that many women were open to the idea, seeing the AI as a supportive guide rather than a scary replacement for a human doctor.
2. The "I Know What It Is" Flavor (Knowledge and Awareness): This checks if people actually understand what the robot can and cannot do. Do they know the AI can give info on healthy eating but can't replace a real doctor's advice? The study showed that knowing the limits of the robot is a huge part of whether people trust it.
3. The "Is This Safe?" Flavor (Critical Evaluation and Trust): This is the most serious part. It measures if people are skeptical enough to double-check the robot's answers. The women in the study generally agreed that AI is helpful, but they also strongly believed that the robot's advice should never be the only thing they listen to. They want to verify the info and make sure their privacy is protected.

The Numbers Game
The researchers tested their ruler on 237 women for the first part and another 237 for the second. The final ruler has 19 questions. When they analyzed the answers, they found that these three "flavors" explained 63.16% of the differences in how people feel. That's a lot of the picture explained!

They also checked if the ruler was consistent. Imagine if you weighed yourself five times in a row and got five totally different numbers; that scale would be broken. But this ruler was very steady. The "internal consistency" score was 0.942 (on a scale where higher is better), which means if you asked the same questions again, you'd get very similar results.

The "Digital Literacy" Connection
Here is a fun twist: The researchers also checked how good these women were at using technology in general (called "Digital Health Literacy"). They found a link: the better a woman was at navigating the internet and checking if online info was real, the more positive she was about using the AI chatbot. It's like saying, "If you know how to spot a fake website, you're more likely to trust a helpful robot." The connection wasn't super strong, but it was definitely there, with a score of 0.265.

What the Ruler Doesn't Say
It's important to know what this study didn't prove. The researchers didn't say that AI chatbots are perfect or that everyone should use them right now. In fact, the study highlights that people are cautious. They don't see the robot as a replacement for a nurse or a doctor; they see it as a helper. The study also didn't test men, so we don't know if men feel the same way. And because they just asked people what they thought at one moment in time, they can't say for sure that using the chatbot causes people to have healthier babies yet.

The Big Takeaway
This paper is like handing scientists and doctors a new, shiny measuring tape. Before, they didn't have a good way to ask, "Do you trust this robot?" Now, they have a tool with 19 questions that can tell them exactly what women think, what they know, and what they are worried about. It suggests that if we want AI to help with family planning, we can't just build cool technology; we have to build trust, teach people how to use it, and make sure they know it's just a sidekick, not the main hero.