Acceptability of an adolescent lifestyle mHealth app: a qualitative study using focus groups and interviews.

Abstract

Background: Although many studies have evaluated behavioral mobile health (mHealth) usability in adults, far fewer have examined acceptability among adolescents, particularly regarding sustained engagement for lifestyle and behavior change. Adolescents have distinct developmental needs and design preferences, yet most mHealth tools are adapted from adult models, contributing to low adoption and limited continued use. In adolescent mHealth, understanding acceptability among adolescents, caregivers, and clinicians is essential to ensure interventions are developmentally appropriate and feasible for clinical integration. Given the complex social and contextual factors shaping adolescent health behaviors, qualitative methods are well-suited to capturing stakeholder experiences beyond usability. This study examines the acceptability of CommitFit^SM, an adolescent lifestyle mHealth app, to generate actionable insights for sustained engagement strategies.

Methods: Two sequential assessments evaluated CommitFit^SM acceptability using the seven domains of the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA; affective attitude, burden, ethicality, intervention coherence, opportunity costs, perceived effectiveness, and self-efficacy), guided by theory-informed, stakeholder-refined questions assessing anticipated and experienced acceptability. In Study 1 (prospective design phase), 6 adolescents, 7 caregivers, and 12 clinicians participated in focus groups using a static prototype of the gamified app; discussions surfaced expectations, concerns, and perspectives essential for early-stage development. Participants were purposively selected to represent key roles: adolescents as end users, caregivers as family decision makers, and clinicians as system-level stakeholders evaluating workflow fit and implementation feasibility. In Study 2 (retrospective post-development phase), 10 adolescents used the full app for 2 weeks and completed individual interviews to provide personal experiences, usability feedback, and engagement patterns not evident in group settings. Data from both phases were analyzed using an abductive, Grounded Theory-informed approach.

Results: Analysis demonstrated high acceptability across adolescents, caregivers, and clinicians. Two additional themes-intervention motivational aspects and stakeholder endorsement-emerged as critical determinants of adolescent engagement and sustained use. Findings reflected input from a socio-demographically diverse cohort varying by race, gender, household income, and rurality, as well as clinicians from family medicine, pediatrics, and psychology. Consistency in perceived acceptability across stakeholder groups and design and post development phases underscores the value of inclusive, multi-stakeholder involvement in developing clinically relevant adolescent mHealth interventions.

Conclusions: Using the seven TFA domains, supplemented by intervention motivational aspects and stakeholder endorsement, this study identified key drivers of adolescent engagement with CommitFit^SM. Findings suggest that acceptability-and conditions that support sustained engagement-may be strengthened when apps offer adaptive goal setting, progress feedback, and motivational features aligned with adolescent preferences, and when caregivers and clinicians actively support use. Applying this expanded nine-domain framework may enhance engagement and acceptability of adolescent mHealth apps and inform designs likely to support sustained use. Future work should evaluate and validate this framework across adolescent-focused applications to support scalable, stakeholder-responsive intervention design.