Newton Robert L, Carter Leah, St Romain Jessica, Jerrod Tiffany, Griffith Derek M, Myers Valerie
Population and Public Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
Klein Buendel, Inc., Golden, CO, USA.
Mhealth. 2019 Jun 13;5:16. doi: 10.21037/mhealth.2019.05.03. eCollection 2019.
African American men experience health disparities across a number of chronic diseases. mHealth technology is widely utilized to address lifestyle factors that contribute to these conditions. Participation of African American men in qualitative and quantitative studies of mHealth is low. Therefore, little is known regarding the acceptability of mHealth interventions and few interventions have been specifically developed for this population. The purpose of the current study is to describe the development of a smartphone application, , to promote the maintenance of physical activity (PA) in African American men and to report on app feasibility when applied to the target population.
We used a mixed methods study design including formative research, user-centered design, and a feasibility study. Focus groups (n=26) were conducted to inform the acceptability of the app and desired features. Lab usability (n=19) was used to develop the app through an iterative process. A feasibility study was conducted to assess utilization of the app over a 1-month timeframe. Measures of usability and user-friendliness were collected during lab usability sessions. Satisfaction and app usage were collected following the feasibility study.
The focus groups revealed that African American men use smartphone apps and that they are willing to utilize an app to maintain PA habits. The app was subsequently developed and contained a dashboard, rewards, a learning component, a prompting system, and activity tracking. Scores increased between the first and last lab sessions for usability [5.0 (0.0) 4.3 (1.0)] and user-friendliness [74.2 (17.0) 70.6 (12.4)]. Participants reported acceptable satisfaction (mean values >3.5 on a 1-5 Likert scale) with most app components.
African American men are willing to utilize mHealth to improve their health behavior, including PA. An initial version of the app has been developed that is acceptable and user-friendly. However, there are several components requested by African American men could not be included in the current app but warrant future app development.
非裔美国男性在多种慢性疾病方面存在健康差异。移动健康技术被广泛用于解决导致这些疾病的生活方式因素。非裔美国男性参与移动健康定性和定量研究的比例较低。因此，对于移动健康干预措施的可接受性知之甚少，并且专门针对该人群开发的干预措施也很少。本研究的目的是描述一款智能手机应用程序的开发过程，该应用程序旨在促进非裔美国男性保持身体活动（PA），并报告该应用程序应用于目标人群时的可行性。
我们采用了混合方法研究设计，包括形成性研究、以用户为中心的设计和可行性研究。进行了焦点小组访谈（n = 26），以了解该应用程序的可接受性和所需功能。通过实验室可用性测试（n = 19），经过反复迭代过程来开发该应用程序。进行了一项可行性研究，以评估该应用程序在1个月时间内的使用情况。在实验室可用性测试期间收集了可用性和用户友好性的指标。在可行性研究之后收集了满意度和应用程序使用情况的数据。
焦点小组访谈表明，非裔美国男性使用智能手机应用程序，并且愿意使用一款应用程序来保持身体活动习惯。随后开发了该应用程序，它包含一个仪表盘、奖励、一个学习组件、一个提示系统和活动跟踪功能。在第一次和最后一次实验室测试之间，可用性得分[5.0（0.0）对4.3（1.0）]和用户友好性得分[74.2（17.0）对70.6（12.4）]有所提高。参与者对大多数应用程序组件的满意度较高（在1 - 5李克特量表上的平均值> 3.5）。
非裔美国男性愿意利用移动健康来改善他们的健康行为，包括身体活动。已经开发出了该应用程序的初始版本，它是可接受的且用户友好。然而，非裔美国男性要求的几个组件未能包含在当前应用程序中，但值得在未来的应用程序开发中加以考虑。
