142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Development of ICANFIT: A mobile device application to promote physical activity and access to health information among older cancer survivors

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Yan Hong, PhD , School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Deborah Vollmer Dahlke, MPAff , School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Marcia Ory, PhD, MPH , Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences, Texas A&M HSC School of Rural Public Health, College Station, TX
Daniel Goldberg, PhD , Texas A&M University
Jessica Cargill , School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Debra Kellstedt, MPH , School of Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, TX
Jairus Pulczinski , School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Tracy Hammond, PhD , Department of Computer Science Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Edgar Hernandez , Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Background: The benefits of physical activity for cancer survivors are well documented. Despite high penetration rates of Internet access and mobile phones among older cancer survivors, few mHealth application connect survivors with resources to encourage physical activity. The current study describes the process of developing a mHealth web-enabled application, ICANFIT, to promote physical activity and provide access to health information among older survivors.

Methods: Prior to developing ICANFIT, we conducted formative interviews with key stakeholders, including older survivors, advocates, healthcare providers and mobile application professionals. Conceived as a trans-disciplinary with collaboration across medicine, public health, anthropology, geography, and computer science, ICANFIT development utilized an iterative process with numerous rounds for design and testing of key features.

Results: The ICANFIT mHealth application includes these key features: 1) Locator: users can search for physical activity resources using zip-codes or an address, 2) Goals: users can set long-term and short-term goals for physical activity, track progress, and obtain instant feedback; 3) Healthy Tips: users can receive weekly tips on health promotion and cancer survivorship, 4) easy-access online resources for older cancer survivors; and 5) social support through ICANFIT’s Facebook community. Currently, ICANFIT is under pilot-test for its efficacy.

Conclusion: As the penetration rate of mobile devices deepens and the number of older cancer survivors continues to increase, it is desirable to develop more senior-friendly and cancer survivor-specific mobile health promotion applications. Applications designed to serve these populations need to be user-centered, trans-disciplinary and involve major stakeholders in an iterative design process.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate how a mobile-enabled web application to promote healthy living is developed. Translate key factors that promote physical activity for older cancer survivors into key functions in web application. Explore innovative mobile and web applications to promote healthy living for the vulnerable populations such as older cancer survivors.

Keyword(s): Information Technology, Physical Activity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal investigator of the project presented. In the past 10 years, I have been PI or Co-I in more than 10 federally funded projects focused on behavioral intervention, and published more than 50 journal articles.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4080.0: Cancer Survivorship Research