Caminamos: A location-based Smartphone App for Latinas to Connect with Nearby Walking Partners

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Health disparities are high among Latinas They are more likely to be overweight diagnosed with diabetes and physically inactive compared to their non Hispanic White counterparts Thus interventions that target improving health access and ameliorating chronic diseases among Latinas are of high public health importance Regular physical activity PA promotes physical and emotional well being yet PA interventions tailored for Latinas remain limited Available data suggest that community focused interventions produce improvements in physical activity PA and are well received by Latinas especially when social and physical environments are considered e g social support safe walking areas etc Research suggests that Latinos respond favorably to technological based health interventions Almost percent of Latinos own a cellphone percent own a smartphone Thus health promotion interventions that can address Latinosandapos preferences regarding their physical and social environments while utilizing a preferred technology source e g smartphone could prove highly successful One smartphone feature that offers great potential health promotion benefit is location based services LBS LBS use geographic positioning to help users connect to their surrounding environment and to other users thus providing them with real time user specific information This proposed project Caminamos! will develop a smartphone app for use with year old Latinas that uses LBS to connect women within geographically proximal neighborhoods as a way to provide social support for increased walking behaviors Specific aims are gather input and evaluative feedback from an Expert Advisory Board EAB to help plan and assess the feasibility of creating the app build connections and gather input from Latino community leaders to assist in the conceptual development of the app through a Community Advisory Board CAB conduct an online survey of a national sample of Latinas on their smartphone usage for health promotion and interest in social networking and LBS technology features conduct iterative focus groups with Latinas age years to guide development of app content design and aesthetics to fully develop a functioning prototype and conduct usability testing with Latinas to test the appandapos s accuracy to establish usersandapos location and connect users through the Caminamos! system and usersandapos use and satisfaction with the app Few app based health products are branded towards Latinas Caminamos! will address this unmet need in the marketplace It will be the first smartphone app that uses location based social networking to promote PA and the only app of its kind targeted to Latinas It will also expand upon what is known to be successful in Latino exercise engagement while simultaneously addressing key barriers to exercise Phase I outcomes will provide the necessary framework and data for developing a full scale app to be tested in a randomized clinical trial In Phase III we plan to market Caminamos! directly to consumers in partnership with a company interested in expanding their brand outreach to a Latina population PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Despite numerous interventions designed to increase physical activity few are specifically tailored to Latinas a population where higher rates of obesity diabetes and other chronic diseases are present This proposed smartphone app will use location based services to connect Latinas with one another in order to improve walking habits by increasing social support and decreasing perceived barriers both of which are known to play a role in physical activity behaviors In this Phase I research surveys of potential end users will determine interest in the app and focus groups will help shape a prototype of the app which will be developed and tested to determine feasibility and functionality for a randomized Phase II intervention