Culturally Adapted Mobile Technology Improves Environmental Health Literacy in Laurentian, Great Lakes Native...

The presence of persistent bioaccumulative toxics (PBT) in aquatic food chains complicates decision processes of people with a strong culture of fish consumption. This environmental contamination is especially problematic for Native American populations in the Laurentian Great Lakes region (Anishinaabeg). Pursuing the growing discipline of environmental health literacy (EHL) may help reduce toxic exposures, support healthy decision-making, and combat health deficits. Our goals for this research were first to improve environmental health literacy using novel technologies and second to help define environmental health literacy metrics that can be tracked over time, especially regarding culturally-contextualized health interests. We recently reported that a mobile app (Gigiigoo'inaan App) presenting personalized, culturally-contextualized fish consumption advice may improve EHL for the Anishinaabeg. Gigiigoo'inaan App safely supports desired fish consumption rates by putting local data into the hands of the Anishinaabeg. We conducted a pre-test post-test evaluation with 103 Aninishinaabe adults. Participants estimated their current fish meal consumption over a hypothetical month before exposure to the software and then planned their future consumption of fish meals in a month after using the mobile app. Significantly more monthly traditional fish meals on average (Median: 4 vs 2, p=0.0005) were selected when using the app versus pre-exposure to the app. Significantly more traditional grams of fish were also selected during use of the app relative to the pretest (Median: 680.39g vs 453.59g, p=0.0007). These increases were accompanied by widespread (97%) adherence to conventional advice that minimizes PBT exposure health effects (ATSDR minimum risk levels).