Experiences of African-American Women with Smartphone-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment

Smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA), or real-time, repeated sampling of participants' states, behaviors, or experiences over time, is a promising approach to understanding obesity-related behaviors in African-American women-a population with the highest obesity prevalence. In this study, we explored participants' experiences with this methodology.

In this secondary analysis of data, 100 African-American women participated in seven consecutive days of EMA data collection.

Measures related to acceptability (technical challenges, daily burden, emotional responses, willingness to participate in future studies) and data quality (reporting accuracy, behavior reactivity, adherence), as well as demographics, were collected.

While there were few demographic differences, women who were unemployed, had the lowest educational levels, or had the lowest per capita income reported the greatest enjoyment with mobile technology-based EMA, while at the same time reporting the highest levels of challenge with use of the equipment. Participants consistently indicated willingness to participate in future EMA studies and indicated that the study method was acceptable. EMA methodology produced data of sufficient quality.

Findings suggest future studies using smartphone-based EMA with African-American women are feasible.