Can ChatGPT provide parent education for oral immunotherapy?

Area of Science:

• Allergy and Immunology
• Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
• Patient Education

Background:

• Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) shows promise for food allergy treatment, but lacks standardized practices and accessible resources for parents.
• Parents face challenges with OIT methodology, safety concerns, and educational materials.
• Generative AI like ChatGPT offers potential for human-like conversation and information dissemination, but its efficacy in OIT education is unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy and utility of ChatGPT as a self-directed educational resource for parents managing children in OIT.
• To assess the quality of ChatGPT-generated responses to common parental queries about OIT.

Main Methods:

• 14 common parent questions on OIT were input into ChatGPT version 3.5.
• Responses were categorized (basic, advanced, medical) and rated by Allergy-Immunology practitioners.
• Readability, understandability, and reproducibility of responses were analyzed using established tools.

Main Results:

• Practitioner ratings for ChatGPT responses were high, averaging 7.8-8.6 across categories.
• Responses had low readability scores, indicating a high-grade reading level.
• Understandability ranged from 73%-84%, and reproducibility was between 83%-93%.

Conclusions:

• ChatGPT generates intelligible and comprehensive answers to patient questions regarding OIT.
• Healthcare practitioners found ChatGPT generally positive but highlighted significant limitations for its use in OIT education.
• Further research is needed to refine AI tools for accurate and accessible patient education in food allergy management.