A focus group study among insufficiently physically active African American adults regarding technology-delivered team-based gamification for physical activity promotion

Courtney M Monroe; Kristen Zosel; Melissa Stansbury; Nicholas Younginer; Rachel E Davis; Gareth Dutton; Robert L Newton Jr; Bo Cai; Delia Smith West

doi:10.21037/mhealth-23-44

A focus group study among insufficiently physically active African American adults regarding technology-delivered team-based gamification for physical activity promotion

Mhealth. 2024 Jan 8:10:3. doi: 10.21037/mhealth-23-44. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Courtney M Monroe¹, Kristen Zosel¹, Melissa Stansbury², Nicholas Younginer¹, Rachel E Davis¹, Gareth Dutton³, Robert L Newton Jr⁴, Bo Cai⁵, Delia Smith West²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
² Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
³ Department of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
⁴ Population and Public Health, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.

Abstract

Background: Gamification represents a promising approach for facilitating positive social interactions among groups of individuals and is increasingly being leveraged in physical activity (PA) interventions to promote enhanced intervention engagement and PA outcomes. Although African American (AA) adults experience disparities associated with health conditions that can be ameliorated with increased PA, little is known about how best to culturally target PA gamification strategies for this population. The purpose of this study was to gather perspectives from AA adults residing in the Southeast United States and subsequently identify themes to help inform the cultural adaptation of an existing electronic and mobile health (e/mHealth) gamification- and theory-based PA intervention for teams of insufficiently active AA adults.

Methods: An AA moderator facilitated six online focus groups among AA adults (n=42; 93% female; 45.09±9.77 years; 34.40±57.38 minutes/week of reported moderate-intensity equivalent PA), using a semi-structured focus group guide. Drawing from a content analysis approach, transcripts were coded and salient themes were identified.

Results: The focus groups revealed the following seven themes: (I) motivation (team-based gamification motivating); (II) accountability (team-based gamification promotes accountability); (III) competition (competitive elements attractive); (IV) weekly challenges (prefer to choose weekly PA challenges); (V) leaderboard feedback (preference for viewing steps and active minutes via a leaderboard); (VI) cultural relevancy (prefer elements reflective of their race and culture that promote team unity); (VII) teammate characteristics (mixed preferences regarding ideal sociodemographic characteristics and starting PA level of teammates).

Conclusions: Integrating team-based gamification in an e/mHealth-based PA intervention may be acceptable among AA adults. The identification of specific design preferences and perceptions of the value of the social environment points to the need to consider surface-level and deep structure cultural targeting when developing and further exploring best practices regarding gamified PA interventions for insufficiently active AAs.

Keywords: Health disparities; electronic and mobile health (e/mHealth); gamification; physical activity (PA); social support.

Abstract

Grants and funding