App Shows Potential for Improving Heart Health Among Black People

In a study published in the journal Circulation, Mayo Clinic researchers found that a smartphone app geared toward improving heart health in Black communities could lead to noticeable benefits, such as improved health scores and behaviors.

As technology has advanced, mobile apps have become a widely used tool in healthcare. Researchers are now determining their efficacy and popularity among various demographics and across disease states.

Relative to the general population, more African Americans experience cardiovascular disease due to social, economic, and social inequalities.

Thus, in this study, researchers sought to examine the effectiveness of a community-driven app in reducing the cardiovascular disease burden in the Black population.

They found that African Americans experienced positive outcomes after participating in a 10-week trial of the app, known as FAITH!. These improvements were related to heart health behaviors, diet, and activity levels.

"Our study is the first of its kind integrating an innovative, community-vetted, smartphone-based app into a randomized clinical trial to improve overall heart health among African Americans," says LaPrincess Brewer, MD, a Mayo Clinic preventive cardiologist and principal investigator of the study, in a press release. "Our results are promising in that they demonstrate the potential of mobile technologies to positively influence health behaviors that are challenging to change: diet and physical activity."

Researchers recruited study participants from African American churches. There were 85 participants, and researchers divided them into two groups: one receiving traditional care and the other receiving the smartphone app-based intervention.

FAITH! Provided several resources, including culturally tailored education modules containing information about the importance of health equity; modules addressing diet, physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, and more; self-monitoring resources for diet and physical activity; and a group sharing board.

To evaluate changes in heart health, researchers scored patients individually on a scale from 0 (poor) to 14 (best) both before and after the trial period. They found that those receiving the app-based intervention displayed an average of a two-point increase in heart health score, higher than the sub-one point that the group receiving standard treatment averaged.

Thus, mobile apps can successfully help improve heart health among African Americans, researchers concluded. They intend to continue testing the FAITH! app through implementation in clinical settings.

Mobile apps have been associated with high levels of care access and patient satisfaction, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, in May, University of Virginia researchers shared that their smartphone app for opioid use disorder showed high levels of patient use during the trial period. It also showed strong potential in supporting those who lived far from a clinical location.

In June, researchers from the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s found that a smartphone program could help evaluate middle ear function, achieving results similar to standard tympanometry systems.