Using a Randomized Clinical Trial to Test the Efficacy of a Culturally-Responsive Mobile Health (mhealth) Application in African Americans

Mindfulness is a promising health promotion strategy for African Americans, and it is imperative that culturally-responsive mindfulness approaches be accessible to this population. One way to address this need is to develop and test if culturally-responsive mobile health (mhealth) applications are efficacious in reducing stress-related outcomes in this population. With this goal in mind, we employed a repeated-measures randomized control trial (RCT) across a 12-week intervention period to evaluate if participants in the intervention group outperformed a wait-list control group in reductions in stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety, emotional regulation difficulties as well as in increases in self-compassion, resilience, and mindfulness attitudes and behaviors. Our sample included 170 Black/African American participants who were randomly assigned to either the intervention condition (n = 84) or the wait-list control group (n = 86). Participants in the intervention condition reported more self-compassion, used more mindfulness, and had greater self-efficacy using mindfulness; yet, no other differences were evident. Participants expressed high levels of satisfaction with the app and gave it a positive rating for its relevance to their lives. These findings support the efficacy of a culturally-responsive mindfulness mHealth app to enhance self-compassion and increase the use of health-promoting behaviors, like mindfulness, among African Americans. Implications for future research are discussed.