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

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.
Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://mhealth.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/mhealth-23-44/coif). All authors report that this project was funded by the Southeast Regional Pilot and Feasibility Program [Vanderbilt University School of Medicine/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (No. DK020593 to Principal Investigator: C.M.M.)]. This funding provided monetary support for K.Z. and M.S. to fulfill their role in the proposed work. Effort on this project was provided in-kind by C.M.M., R.E.D., G.D., R.L.N., B.C., and D.S.W. C.M.M. reports receiving travel costs in 2022 from the University of South Carolina to present a portion of this work via a poster at the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s 2022 Annual Meeting. R.L.N. reports receiving NIH funding (R42MD014947) to work with Klein Buendel (a marketing and technology company), to develop a smartphone app to increase physical activity in African American men. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.
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