This study aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of using state-of-the-art interactive technology and social media and to improve adherence with the safe sleep guidelines by young mothers and their families. Public health messages, which can be effective in older adults are not achieving the same results with young mothers. They do not always make choices supported by medical research, can be challenging to reach via traditional health messaging. Young mothers may also be under the influence of older relatives, who may feel that they know better than the guidelines about what is safe for the baby. Since many young mothers are highly engaged with social media and interactive apps, these technologies may hold the key to reaching this population by making health education entertaining and shifting attitudes and emotions about illness and treatment. This intervention includes those engaging and educational elements, but goes beyond them in new and innovative ways. Our multidisciplinary team will recruit young mothers to assist in informing the development of a prototype that can be accessed via smartphone and shared with friends and family. To increase acceptability, we will develop the intervention with regular input from the target audience, as well as healthcare providers. We will conduct feasibility testing, assessing the prototype?s acceptability and potential impact on these measures. We anticipate the results will demonstrate feasibility, which will provide data to inform a Phase II study to test the efficacy of the game on increasing adherence to the safe sleep guidelines through a larger randomized controlled trial as well as provide a more significant level of feedback on playability, art and animation styles, engagement, and overall acceptability. Our commercialization strategy is already developed, and we will test that, too. Successful completion of these aims will demonstrate how this product might advance the effective implementation of an evidence-based behavioral intervention for increased compliance with evidence-based safe-sleep guidelines. If it proves effective, the core technology could also be revised and applied to other medical conditions.
This project investigates the feasibility and acceptability of improving adherence with evidence-based safe sleep guidelines among young parents through an innovative, socially linked app. The project focuses on the development of a culturally, racially, and young adult-appropriate safe sleep intervention which uses entertainment and social media for parent education and behavior change.
