TY - JOUR
T1 - A cardiovascular health and wellness mobile health intervention among church-going African Americans
T2 - Formative evaluation of the FAITH! app
AU - Brewer, La Princess C.
AU - Kumbamu, Ashok
AU - Smith, Christina
AU - Jenkins, Sarah
AU - Jones, Clarence
AU - Hayes, Sharonne N.
AU - Burke, Lora
AU - Cooper, Lisa A.
AU - Patten, Christi A.
N1 - Funding Information:
First, the authors want to express their gratitude to all study participants for providing their perspectives and insights on the FAITH! App. In addition, they would also like to thank all the participating Rochester and Minneapolis-St Paul area churches, including Christ’s Church of the Jesus Hour, New Hope Baptist Church, Rochester Community Baptist Church, St. Albans Church of God in Christ, and Word of Life Church of God in Christ as well as their FAITH! Partners (Mrs Frances Ellis, Ms Margaret Frye, Mrs Jacqueline Johnson, Mr Clarence Jones, Mrs Shirley Land, Mrs Ramona Norwood, Ms LaTasha Perkins, Ms Monisha Richard, and Reverend Marcia Wyatt). Finally, the authors would like to express their gratitude to the Mayo Clinic faculty/staff for sharing their expertise for health promotion. LB was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences ([NCATS], Clinical and Translational Science Awards [CTSA] Grant No. KL2 TR002379), the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (Grant No. 1 R21 MD013490-01), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Grant No. CDC-DP18-1817) during the implementation and analysis of this work. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NCATS, NIH, or CDC. This publication was further supported by the CTSA Grant No. UL1 TR000135 from the NCATS to the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Clinic Center for Health Equity and Community Engagement in Research. The funding bodies had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 JMIR Formative Research. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - Background: In light of the scarcity of culturally tailored mobile health (mHealth) lifestyle interventions for African Americans, we designed and pilot tested the Fostering African-American Improvement in Total Health (FAITH!) App in a community-based participatory research partnership with African American churches to promote cardiovascular health and wellness in this population. Objective: This report presents the results of a formative evaluation of the FAITH! App from participants in an intervention pilot study. Methods: We included 2 semistructured focus groups (n=4 and n=5) to explore participants' views on app functionality, utility, and satisfaction as well as its impact on healthy lifestyle change. Sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and qualitative data were analyzed by using general inductive analysis to generate themes. Results: In total, 6 overarching themes emerged among the 9 participants: Overall impression, content usefulness, formatting, implementation, impact, and suggestions for improvement. Underpinning the themes was a high level of agreement that the intervention facilitated healthy behavioral change through cultural tailoring, multimedia education modules, and social networking. Suggestions for improvement were streamlining the app self-monitoring features, prompts to encourage app use, and personalization based on individuals' cardiovascular risk. Conclusions: This formative evaluation found that the FAITH! App had high reported satisfaction and impact on the health-promoting behaviors of African Americans, thereby improving their overall cardiovascular health. Further development and testing of the app among African Americans is warranted.
AB - Background: In light of the scarcity of culturally tailored mobile health (mHealth) lifestyle interventions for African Americans, we designed and pilot tested the Fostering African-American Improvement in Total Health (FAITH!) App in a community-based participatory research partnership with African American churches to promote cardiovascular health and wellness in this population. Objective: This report presents the results of a formative evaluation of the FAITH! App from participants in an intervention pilot study. Methods: We included 2 semistructured focus groups (n=4 and n=5) to explore participants' views on app functionality, utility, and satisfaction as well as its impact on healthy lifestyle change. Sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and qualitative data were analyzed by using general inductive analysis to generate themes. Results: In total, 6 overarching themes emerged among the 9 participants: Overall impression, content usefulness, formatting, implementation, impact, and suggestions for improvement. Underpinning the themes was a high level of agreement that the intervention facilitated healthy behavioral change through cultural tailoring, multimedia education modules, and social networking. Suggestions for improvement were streamlining the app self-monitoring features, prompts to encourage app use, and personalization based on individuals' cardiovascular risk. Conclusions: This formative evaluation found that the FAITH! App had high reported satisfaction and impact on the health-promoting behaviors of African Americans, thereby improving their overall cardiovascular health. Further development and testing of the app among African Americans is warranted.
KW - African Americans
KW - Community-based participatory research
KW - Health promotion
KW - Mobile health
KW - Mobile phone
KW - eHealth
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U2 - 10.2196/21450
DO - 10.2196/21450
M3 - Article
C2 - 33200999
AN - SCOPUS:85096827670
SN - 2561-326X
VL - 4
JO - JMIR Formative Research
JF - JMIR Formative Research
IS - 11
M1 - e21450
ER -