A Cardiovascular Health and Wellness Mobile Health Intervention Among Church-Going African Americans: Formative Evaluation of the FAITH! App

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. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03084822; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03084822.