Initial Design of Culturally Informed Behavioral Intervention Technologies: Developing an mHealth Intervention for Young Sexual Minority Men With Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depression
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: To our knowledge, there is no well-articulated process for the design of culturally informed behavioral intervention technologies. OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the early stages of such a process, illustrated by the methodology for the ongoing development of a behavioral intervention technology targeting generalized anxiety disorder and major depression among young sexual minority men. METHODS: We integrated instructional design for Internet behavioral intervention technologies with greater detail on information sources that can identify user needs in understudied populations, as well as advances in the understanding of technology-specific behavioral intervention technology dimensions that may need to be culturally tailored. RESULTS: General psychological theory describing how to effect change in the clinical target is first integrated with theory describing potentially malleable factors that help explain the clinical problem within the population. Additional information sources are then used to (1) evaluate the theory, (2) identify population-specific factors that may affect users' ability to relate to and benefit from the behavioral intervention technology, and (3) establish specific skills, attitudes, knowledge, etc, required to change malleable factors posited in the theory. User needs result from synthesis of this information. Product requirements are then generated through application of the user needs to specific behavioral intervention technology dimensions (eg, technology platform). We provide examples of considerations relevant to each stage of this process and how they were applied. CONCLUSIONS: This process can guide the initial design of other culturally informed behavioral intervention technologies. This first attempt to create a systematic design process can spur development of guidelines for design of behavioral intervention technologies aimed to reduce health disparities.
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The current literature provides some guidance on how to adapt mobile phone-based interventions for use in countries where they were not specifically designed, acknowledging the essential role of the end user.
“The current literature provides some guidance on how to adapt mobile phone-based interventions (for use in countries wherein it was not specifically designed), acknowledging the essential role of the end user in this process [24,46,47].”
From Assessing the Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Translation of a Text-Based Mobile Smoking Cessation Program in Samoa (TXTTaofiTapaa): Pilot Study (2018) · cites this paper as [47]
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- Authors
- Burns, M. N., Montague, E., & Mohr, D. C.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Burns, Michelle Nicole
- Venue
- Journal of Medical Internet Research
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2013-12-05
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e271
- ISSN
- 1438-8871 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3869054
- OpenAlex
- W2000396398
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 2.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Medical Internet Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K08MH094441)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Keywords
- mobile health, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, instructional design, user needs analysis, culturally tailored interventions, health disparities, design process
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Anxiety Disorders, Behavior Therapy, Cultural Characteristics, Major Depressive Disorder, Humans, Male, Models, Psychological, Telemedicine, Homosexuality, Male, Health Status Disparities, Young Adult
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