Disseminating Health Prevention Programs Using AI-Crafted, Culturally Tailored Ads for Somali American Adolescents

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health messaging present opportunities to bridge service health gaps in underserved communities. Adolescents are highly engaged with technology; however, they lack the access to relevant health information and resources tailored to their specific needs. This may be especially true for Black migrant-background adolescents. Utilizing publicly available AI resources can support the dissemination of culturally responsive digital prevention programs. The present study developed four 1-min direct-to-consumer (DTC) video health advertisements that varied in cultural and developmental tailoring, using focus-group-generated digital health message preferences. The advertisements promoted a culturally adapted food-focused media literacy program, JUS Media? Global Classroom - Somali American. The four ads were experimentally tested among 230 Somali American adolescents (ages 11-19, M_age = 14.9; 67.5% female) who through age-stratified randomization viewed the DTC video ads. Surveys assessed personal relevance, elaboration (i.e., critical thinking after receiving the message), message liking, and intentions to use the advertised online health intervention. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that cultural adaptation significantly increased three of four primary indicators of program effectiveness-personal relevance, liking, and usage intentions-whereas developmental adaptation did not significantly predict outcome variables. Insights from the study offer novel strategies in applying human-centered AI to co-develop tailored digital advertisements promoting digital prevention programs. Cultural tailoring of health messages has been criticized for requiring a substantial degree of human and financial capital. Publicly available AI tools can efficiently design tailored develop tailored direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads to disseminate digital health programs and overcome logistical barriers. This is important given delivering health interventions to youth, perhaps especially Black migrant-background youth, is often challenging due to institutional gatekeepers and lack of culturally responsive interventions and recruitment/dissemination strategies (Hill, L., Ndugga, N., & Artiga, S. (2024, June 11). Key data on health and health care by race and ethnicity. KFF. https://www.kff.org/key-data-on-health-and-health-care-by-race-and-ethnicity/). To propel accessibility and scalability of services to support Black migrant youth in the U.S., who are at risk for unhealthy eating due to disproportionate targeting of unhealthy food messages, prevention and intervention programs can capitalize on the very same tactics used by junk food advertisers to strategically develop and disseminate health services. By leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop DTC marketing of digital prevention programs, service providers can effectively reach audiences most likely to benefit, offering a more cost-effective alternative to traditional recruitment strategies (Simenec et al., Journal of Child and Family Studies 32:1425-1437, 2023). Most research on tailored DTC strategies has been conducted with adults and only after intervention efficacy studies, delaying the reach/impact of targeted youth health programs. This experimental study investigates the effectiveness of culturally and developmentally tailored DTC video ads for a digital food-focused media literacy program for Somali American adolescents. Ads were developed with the support of AI tools and in partnership with the Somali American community.