Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jun 22, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 3, 2026 - Aug 28, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
One-Month field testing of the Lola mobile app in the knowledge of and intention to participate in Brain Health and Alzheimer's Disease Research for African Americans.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mobile health applications have the potential to empower community-dwelling African Americans (AAs) by increasing access to health education, improving health literacy, and encouraging engagement in research. Despite the potential, few digital interventions provide culturally responsive, evidence-based education on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) and brain health. Thus, the Lola mobile app was developed with the goals of increasing ADRD literacy and participation in clinical brain health research among AAs.
Objective:
This was a single-group pretest–posttest design to field-test the Lola mobile app, a newly developed and culturally responsive mobile application. AAs aged 45 years and older were recruited and asked to use this app for a one-month period. The app automatically recorded engagement and categorized users into four groups: infrequent, casual, core, and power users.
Methods:
This study used pre- and post-statistical analyses of participants’ responses to different knowledge-score questionnaires.
Results:
Of 303 AAs screened, 135 were eligible and consented; 105 AAs with a mean age of 63.4 years completed both pre- and post-surveys, yielding a completion rate of 77.8%. Half of the participants were classified as core or power users. Knowledge scores in ADRD and brain health significantly improved following one month of using the Lola mobile app. Higher engagement with the app did not lead to higher intention to participate in ADRD-related research. Power users reported being less likely to participate in genetic testing.
Conclusions:
The Lola mobile app is a feasible and highly usable mobile platform for AAs. However, increased engagement with the app did not translate into consistently greater knowledge gains, nor did it meaningfully increase participants’ intentions to engage in ADRD-related research activities. These results suggest that while the app effectively enhances knowledge and information accessibility, additional strategies may be necessary to influence research participation behaviors.
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