title: Designing a Culturally Appropriate Visually Enhanced Low-Text Mobile Health App Promoting Physical Activity for Latinos: A Qualitative Study.
abstract: Rapid proliferation of smartphone ownership and use among Latinos offers a unique opportunity to employ innovative visually enhanced low-text (VELT) mobile health applications (mHealth app) to promote health behavior change for Latinos at risk for lifestyle-related diseases. Using focus groups and in-depth interviews with 16 promotores and 5 health care providers recruited from California clinics, this qualitative study explored perceptions of visuals for a VELT mHealth app promoting physical activity (PA) and limiting sedentary behavior (SB) for Latinos. In this Phase 1 study, participants endorsed visuals portraying PA guidelines and recommended visuals depicting family and socially oriented PA. Overall, participants supported a VELT mHealth app as an alternative to text-based education. Findings will inform the future Phase 2 study development of a culturally appropriate VELT mHealth app to promote PA for Latinos, improve health literacy, and provide an alternative to traditional clinic text-based health education materials.
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA melinda.bender@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Melinda S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Suzanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.affiliation: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kennedy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D015438:Health Behavior; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000592:standards*; D010465:Perception; D036301:Qualitative Research; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
keywords: Latinos; health care providers; health education; health literacy; mobile health applications; physical activity; promotores