Funded Projects

Using Innovative Communication Technology for the Health of Young African American Women

Grantee: Boston Medical Center
Principal Investigator: Brian Jack
Project Number: R40MC21510
Project Date: 2/1/2011

Age group(s)

• Women/Maternal
• Prenatal
• Young Adulthood (19-25 years)

Targeted/Underserved Population

• African American

Abstract

Background. Despite over thirty years of research and policy work, Black women are approximately twice as likely to deliver a preterm infant than white women. The current project is part of a new effort to focus on engaging young women before they become pregnant - a concept called preconception care. Simply, healthy women are more likely to have healthy babies. Intervention. This study is the first to examine the effectiveness of an innovative health communication system (Leela) that provides preconception health care across 12 domains of health and utilizes advanced capabilities to remain current through story-telling functionality, and scales the intervention to a large number of women via its social marketing applications. Methods. A two-armed randomized controlled trial of African American women ages 18-25 recruited through a federally funded preconception peer educator network. Both groups will undergo a comprehensive preconception health risk assessment. The intervention group will then receive the Leela intervention. The control group will be offered the intervention after outcomes are collected at 6 months. Outcomes. At six months we will compare total health risks. Secondary outcomes include: pregnancy rate, number of health risks for those who become pregnant, participant satisfaction, number of stories written and listened to and the number of women recruited via social networking. Sub analyses include the impact of perceived societal stress and health literacy on outcomes. We will use innovative methods to estimate the impact on social justice. Significance. The potential to create a low-cost, user-friendly, culturally competent, evidencebased, scalable intervention that is continuously refreshed (via the story telling function) and can be used across a range of health care, educational and community settings to improve the health of young African American women.

Publications

Listed is descending order by year published.

Jack B, Bickmore T, Hempstead M, et al. Reducing preconception risks among African American women with conversational agent technology. J Am Board Fam Med. 2015;28(4):441-51.

Martin SA, Harris K, Jack BW. The health of young African American men. JAMA. 2015 Apr 14;313(14):1415-6.

Temel S, van Voorst SF, Jack BW, Denktaş S, Steegers EA. Evidence-based preconceptional lifestyle interventions. Epidemiol Rev. 2014;36:19-30. doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxt003. Epub 2013 Aug 28. PMID:23985430

Gardiner P, Hempstead MB, Ring L, et al. Reaching women through health information technology: the gabby preconception care system. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2013;27(suppl 3):eS11-eS20.