Benefits of mHealth Co-design for African American and Hispanic Adults: Multi-Method Participatory Research for a Health Information App.

Background: Participatory research methodologies can provide insight into the use of mobile health (mHealth) apps, cultural preferences and needs, and health literacy issues for racial and ethnic groups, such as African Americans and Hispanics who experience health disparities.

Objective: This methodological paper aims to describe a 1-year multi-method participatory research process that directly engaged English-speaking African American and bilingual or Spanish-speaking Hispanic adults in designing a prevention-focused, personalized mHealth, information-seeking smartphone app. We report design team participants' experiences with the methods to show why our approach is valuable in producing apps that are more aligned with their needs.

Methods: Three design sessions were conducted to inform the iteration of a prevention-focused, personalized mHealth, information-seeking app. The research team led sessions with 2 community member design teams. Design team participants described their goals, motives, and interests regarding prevention information using different approaches, such as collage and card sorting (design session 1), interaction with the app prototype (design session 2), and rating of cultural appropriateness strategies (design session 3).

Results: Each design team had 5 to 6 participants: 2 to 3 male participants and 3 female participants aged between 30 and 76 years. Design team participants shared their likes and dislikes about the sessions and the overall experience of the design sessions. Both African American and Hispanic teams reported positive participation experience. The primary reasons included the opportunity for their views to be heard, collectively working together in the design process, having their apprehension about mHealth reduced, and an opportunity to increase their knowledge of how they could manage their health through mHealth. The feedback from each session informed the following design sessions and a community-engaged process. In addition, the specific findings for each design session informed the design of the app for both communities.

Conclusions: This multi-method participatory research process revealed 4 key lessons learned and recommendations for future research in mHealth app design for African Americans and Hispanics. Lesson 1-community partnerships are key because they provide the chain of trust that helps African American and Hispanic participants feel comfortable participating in app research. Lesson 2-community-based participatory research principles continue to yield promising results to engage these populations in mHealth research. Lesson 3-interactive design sessions uncover participants' needs and development opportunities for mHealth tools. Lesson 4-multiple design sessions with different methods provide an in-depth understanding of participants' mHealth preferences and needs. Future developers should consider these methods and lessons to ensure health apps in the marketplace contribute to eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity.