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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.

Effects of Motivational Interviewing and Wearable Fitness Trackers on Motivation and Physical Activity in Inactive Adults

Effects of Motivational Interviewing and Wearable Fitness Trackers on Motivation and Physical Activity in Inactive Adults

Despite tremendous adoption of wearable fitness trackers by adults, it is unclear if they affect physical activity engagement or motivation. In a paper published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, Dr. Kayla Nuss, Klein Buendel Scientist, and her research collaborators reported on a study to examine the combined effects of motivational interviewing and wearable fitness trackers on motivation and physical activity in inactive adults.

The authors hypothesized that combining a wearable fitness tracker (such as a FitBit®) with an effective intervention (motivational interviewing), would positively influence both motivation and physical activity. To test the hypothesis, a 12-week randomized controlled trial was conducted with 40 adults who did not meet physical activity recommendations. The four comparison groups were: (1) physical activity education only (educational control) with 10 participants, (2) use of a wearable fitness tracker (WFT) with 10 participants, (3) bi-weekly motivational interviewing sessions with 10 participants, or (4) both motivational interviewing and WFT (WFT+) with 10 participants.

Motivation and physical activity were measured though an online survey and actigraphy (a method to objectively estimate physical activity) pre- and post-intervention. Both the WFT+ and motivational interviewing groups scored higher in autonomy, competence, and relatedness for physical activity compared to the control group, which is associated with higher quality, or more autonomous forms of motivation. Further, both groups did show improvements in autonomous forms of motivations (such as interest or enjoyment) and decreased controlled forms of motivation (such as pressure or reward). Detailed descriptions of the study’s methods, recruitment efforts, measures, data analysis, outcomes, and limitations can be found in the Journal of Sports Sciences publication.

The authors detected no changes in physical activity. High autonomous motivation at baseline predicted higher post-intervention physical activity in the WFT+ group, but predicted lower post-intervention physical activity in the WFT group. The results of the study suggest that motivational interviewing alone or with a wearable fitness tracker can improve basic psychological needs and autonomous forms of motivation for physical activity, but not physical activity participation. The authors conclude that individual differences in motivation at baseline may moderate the effect of a wearable fitness tracker on physical activity. The findings add to the growing body of evidence that wearable fitness trackers can have some positive effect on adult’s physical activity.

This research was supported by Colorado State University Department of Health and Exercise Science (Dr. Kayla Nuss, Project Director). Collaborating authors included Ms. Kristen Moore from the University of Southern California; Dr. Tasha Marchant from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; Dr. Jimikaye Beck Courtney from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; and Ms. Kathryn Edwards, Dr. Julia Sharp, Dr. Tracy Nelson, and Dr. Kaigang Li from Colorado State University.