579 - There’s an App for That: Feasibility of a Multilingual mHealth Intervention to Promote Physical Activity Among Inner-City Children

Publication Number: 4567.579

Mohamed Ghamry, BronxCare Health System, Bronx, NY, United States; Fakeha Masood, BronxCare Health System, Bronx, NY, United States; Yossef Alnasser, BronxCare Health System, New York, NY, United States; Cadina C. Powell, American University of Antigua College of Medicine, Washington, DC, United States

Background: Childhood obesity disproportionately affects inner-city children, particularly in the South Bronx, where poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, and limited recreational opportunities restrict physical activity. Mobile health (mHealth) tools may provide an accessible, multilingual, and culturally adaptable way to promote physical activity in underserved communities.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, accessibility, and applicability of using a free, multilingual mobile health (mHealth) application "Exercise for Kids at Home" to promote physical activity among inner-city children aged 7-12 years living in the South Bronx

Design/Methods: We conducted a 3-week prospective feasibility study of a free application called "Exercise for Kids at Home" which has multilingual feature. Children aged 7-12 years receiving care at BronxCare clinics were enrolled and stratified by BMI (obese ≥95th percentile; non-obese 10th-85th percentile). Weekly follow-up calls with parents and children assessed acceptance, accessibility, feasability, and applicability.

Results: The study was able to recruit 34 inner-city children (mean age 9.6 years; 50% female; 44% obese) to participate in a 3-week feasibility study. Families were primarily African American (53%) and Hispanic (38%) reflecting the majority of inner-city communities. Cumulative acceptance of using a free multilingual mHealth application to be physically active was higher among obese versus non-obese children (3.1 vs 0.6; P = .010). Similarly, the acceptance was higher among non-English speakers versus English speaking families (4.1 vs 0.9; P = .012). Accessibility was greater for non-English-speaking families (2.7 vs 0.7; P = .003) and families of obese children (2.0 vs 0.5; P = .004). The overall mean feasibility for all participant across the 3 weeks was 2.31, suggesting the use of mHealth app was not feasible. Still, obese children reported higher feasibility than non-obese peers (2.9 vs 1.8; P = .05). The overall applicability score was 2.59, indicating the app was not applicable to inner-city children in the Bronx, New York. While obese children reported higher applicability than non-obese peers (3.2 vs 2.1).

Conclusion(s): A free, multilingual mHealth application was found to be acceptable and accessible among targeted inner-city children in the South Bronx. However, the use of a free application to promote physical activity was not feasible or applicable to inner-city children in the South Bronx, New York at this current time. This intervention might be suitable for targeted inner-city children with improved features to be more feasible and applicable.

Table 1. Key demographics of the participants
Baseline demographic characteristics of 34 children aged 7-12 years enrolled in the 3-week feasibility study of a multilingual mHealth physical activity intervention. Variables include age (mean ± SD), gender, language, obesity status, race/ethnicity, and age groups. Values are presented as mean ± SD for continuous variables and n (%) for categorical variables.

Figure 1. Acceptability Mean by Language (p=0.012)
Comparison of mean acceptability scores of the mHealth intervention between English-speaking and non-English-speaking participants over the 3-week study period. Non-English-speaking families reported significantly higher acceptability compared with English-speaking families (p = 0.012)

Figure 2. Acceptability Mean by Obesity Status (p=0.01)
Comparison of mean acceptability scores of the mHealth intervention between children with obesity and without obesity over the 3-week study period. Children with obesity reported significantly higher acceptability compared with their non-obese peers (p = 0.01).