Designing and Evaluating a Digital Family Health History Tool for Spanish Speakers

Maria Cerda Diez, Dharma E. Cortés, Michelle Trevino-Talbot, Candice Bangham, Michael R. Winter, Howard Cabral, Tricia Norkunas Cunningham, Diana M. Toledo, Deborah J. Bowen, Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, Timothy Bickmore and Catharine Wang
Additional contact information
Maria Cerda Diez: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Dharma E. Cortés: Health Equity Research Lab, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA 02141, USA
Michelle Trevino-Talbot: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Candice Bangham: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Michael R. Winter: Biostatistics and Epidemiology Data Analytics Center (BEDAC), Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Howard Cabral: Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Tricia Norkunas Cunningham: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
Diana M. Toledo: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA
Deborah J. Bowen: Department of Bioethics and Humanities, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Michael K. Paasche-Orlow: Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02218, USA
Timothy Bickmore: College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Catharine Wang: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-16

Abstract: Digital family health history tools have been developed but few have been tested with non-English speakers and evaluated for acceptability and usability. This study describes the cultural and linguistic adaptation and evaluation of a family health history tool (VICKY: VIrtual Counselor for Knowing Your Family History) for Spanish speakers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 56 Spanish-speaking participants; a subset of 30 also participated in a qualitative component to evaluate the acceptability and usability of Spanish VICKY. Overall, agreement in family history assessment was moderate between VICKY and a genetic counselor (weighted kappa range: 0.4695 for stroke—0.6615 for heart disease), although this varied across disease subtypes. Participants felt comfortable using VICKY and noted that VICKY was very likeable and possessed human-like characteristics. They reported that VICKY was very easy to navigate, felt that the instructions were very clear, and thought that the time it took to use the tool was just right. Spanish VICKY may be useful as a tool to collect family health history and was viewed as acceptable and usable. The study results shed light on some cultural differences that may influence interactions with family history tools and inform future research aimed at designing and testing culturally and linguistically diverse digital systems.

Keywords: family health history; e-health; Spanish language; health literacy; health disparities; conversational agent; genetic communication; ethnic/racial minorities; evaluation of genomic tools for public health; public health genetics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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