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MobileMen and mHealth

MobileMen and mHealth

Ms. Amanda Brice, Klein Buendel Project Coordinator, is the lead author on a research paper published in the journal mHealth. The paper reports on the development of MobileMen, a mobile app to promote physical activity in African American men.

African American men experience higher rates of chronic diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity compared to other race and gender groups. This population also has high levels of inactivity, one of the major risk facts for chronic disease. Due to the promise shown by mobile apps in providing tailored and easily accessible health interventions, the authors set out to design an app to help African American men initiate and maintain their physical activity.

The research team conducted focus groups with 24 African American men to gain insight on the features and design aspects to include in the app prototype. They then used an iterative design process to conduct multiple rounds of beta and usability testing to create a prototype that was easy to use, visually pleasing, and culturally tailored. A satisfaction and helpfulness questionnaire and the System Usability Scale (SUS) were used as quantitative measures in addition to qualitative data provided by participants. Tasks were given to participants to test for ability to navigate and use the app features.

The average satisfaction and helpfulness ratings from participants were 3.9/5 and 3.7/5 for beta testing and 4.3/5 and 4.1/5 for usability testing, which met the pre-determined criteria of ≥3.5. Only one of the satisfaction questions, which was about cultural tailoring for African American men, was below the pre-determined criteria (2.7). By round two of usability testing, most tasks were able to be completed by all participants, and the mean SUS score was 90.36 out of 100 which exceeded a priori feasibility criterion of a mean rating of 68.0. The feedback on the finalized features was positive, and participants expressed that they would use the app if it were on the market.

Based on both the qualitative and quantitative data obtained from multiple iterative design rounds, the MobileMen app was easy to use and contained culturally tailored features. It was well received by the target population and deemed ready to be tested on a larger scale for effectiveness. Full descriptions of the methods, analyses, and findings can be found in the mHealth paper.

This research is funded by an STTR Fast Track grant to Klein Buendel from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (MD014947). The Principal Investigator is Dr. Robert Newton from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Authors on this paper include Amanda Brice, Steve Fullmer, Charles Barger, Joel Serbinski, Michael Gallik, Dr. David Buller, and Dr. Kayla Nuss from Klein Buendel; Phillip Nauta, and Dr. Robert Newton from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center; Dr. April Stull from Baylor University; Dr. Damon Swift from the University of Virginia; and Dr. Derek Griffith from the University of Pennsylvania. The MobileMen app was designed and programmed by the Klein Buendel Creative Team.

Design of a high-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training app

Design of a high-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training app

Dr. Kayla Nuss, Klein Buendel Scientist, and a collaborative research team from Klein Buendel and the University of Colorado Boulder have published a paper on the feasibility and design of a novel smartphone app to deliver blood pressure-lowering high-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training in the journal mHealth.

High-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) is a time-efficient form of respiratory exercise shown to lower blood pressure in midlife and older adults (aged ≥50 years) in randomized controlled trials delivered in clinical research settings. The purpose of this study was to design a feasible and acceptable smartphone application (app) for independently delivering IMST for lowering blood pressure.

Two rounds of iterative focus groups comprised of midlife and older women and men with above-normal systolic blood pressure (self-reported ≥120 mmHg) were performed to gain feedback on interest in an IMST smartphone app and design features. Focus group results were analyzed using a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) coding and data analysis protocol. Clickable wireframes were developed based on focus group findings. The wireframes were then beta tested for usability and additional feedback from target users was obtained.

Among midlife and older adults, there was considerable interest in app-delivered IMST as a
lifestyle intervention for lowering blood pressure. Potential facilitators and barriers of use for a potential app also were uncovered. Furthermore, the app wireframes were found to be highly usable, indicating that the app is ready for full-scale programming. Detailed research methods, analyses, and results of this research are reported in the mHealth paper. In conclusion, the authors report that they have designed a feasible and acceptable smartphone app for independently delivering blood pressure-lowering IMST in midlife and older adults.

The research is supported by an STTR grant to Klein Buendel from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL167375; Dr. Douglas Seals, Principal Investigator, from the University of Colorado Boulder). The authors are Dr. Kayla Nuss, Amanda Brice, and Steven Fullmer from Klein Buendel; and Elizabeth Jones, CeAnn Udovich, Dr. Kaitlin Freeberg, Narissa McCarty, Dr. Douglas Seals, and Dr. Daniel Craighead from the Department of Integrative Physiology at University of Colorado Boulder.