Location Initiated Individualized Texts for African American Adolescent Health

PROJECT SUMMARYAdolescent obesity is a multifaceted public health concernparticularly for Black and Hispanic adolescents who are disproportionately impacted by this epidemicResearch suggests that exposure toand consumption offoods prepared outside of the home contribute to having a high body mass indexBMIOn averageyouth consume over one third of their daily calories from meals prepared away from homemainly from fast foodThe majority of Black and Hispanic youth live in low income familiesoften in communities with a high density of fast food restaurantsWays to help adolescents make healthy choices in obesogenic settings are neededOutcomes from the Michigan Pediatric Outpatient Weight Evaluation and ReductionMPOWERprogram suggested that adolescentssuccess with making healthy choices is greatly impacted by meals eaten outside of the homeIn our MPOWERed Messages study we used tailored text messagesbased on Self Determination Theory and Motivational Interviewingto help motivate adolescents to make healthy choicesThis study revealed that adolescents welcomed health related texts if they were personally relevantbut thought they would be most helpful if they were received at times when they faced dietary choicesi ein a restaurantTo address this needMEI Research partnered with the PI on the PhaseSTTR project to develop the Location Initiated Individualized Texts for African American Adolescent HealthLIITA Hprogram that prompted healthy food choices at the point of purchaseLIITA H succeeded indeveloping the technology to aaccurately identify when users were in their school cafeteriaor other eating venuewith the intent to eatbsend a tailored text to prompt healthy choicesand csubmit an annotated photo of their food choiceadapting message librarybased on our previously tested MPOWERed messagesto be tailored to usersfood preferencesschool restaurant menusand to incorporate cultural tailoring with input from the target populationanddemonstrating feasibility via amonth pilot test and pre post interviews with participantsThe Phaseproject will build on this successand will enhance the program based on Phaseinput to create the Location Initiated Individualized Texts for Adolescent HealthLIITAHprogramContent will be expanded to include messages tailored to Hispanic and White adolescents and to parentsThe technology will be enhanced to work on all mobile operating systemsinclude a companion application for parentslink locations and menu data for food outlets nationwideand allow automated message tailoringWe will test integration of the program into the Fruit Street platformFruit Street is a telehealth company that has raised $million in the pastyearsits platform is licensed to hundreds of providers who treat obesityFruit Street will be the first licensee of LIITAHWe will conduct a trial of the integrated program to demonstrate the effect of LIITAH on decreasing the number of calories purchased from and visits to restaurantsand on lowering BMI PROJECT NARRATIVE This PhaseSTTR project is to build upon the success of the Phasestudy which combined the geo location and mobile application expertise of MEI Research with the PIandapos s clinical and research experience in text messagingweight managementand cultural tailoringto create a tailored intervention delivered via a mobile appto help Black adolescents make healthy food choices at the point of purchaseThis Phaseproject will enhance the intervention to include greater automation and incorporate user requested components based on Phaseinputexpand the tailoring to ensure relevance to Hispanic and White adolescents and to parentsdemonstrate the impact on usersandaposfood purchases in restaurantsand integrate the program into the successful Fruit Street Telehealth Platform in preparation for commercialization and to make it widely available to those who might benefitBy helping adolescents make healthy choices when eating outthis product will promote the achievement of a healthy weight and a reduction in weight related illnesses