Urban, Suburban, and Rural: Adolescents’ Use and Preferences for Fitness Promotion Technologies across Communities

Introduction. An understanding of adolescents’ use of technology across ages and communities could allow for future targeted obesity intervention strategies. Methods. Focus groups of adolescents from rural, suburban, and urban cities in three states were conducted. Focus groups were led by a trained facilitator to explore how participants used technologies and whether they applied them for fitness purposes. All focus groups were audio recorded and manually transcribed. Analysis was conducted by three investigators using an iterative process. Results. Five focus groups included adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years (20 females and 8 males.) Three themes were derived from our data. First, we found age differences regarding technology applied to fitness. Younger participants described technology as a complement to fitness; older participants viewed technology as a motivator for fitness. Second, differences in fitness approaches existed between rural and urban adolescents. Adolescents in rural communities reported focusing on the outdoors for fitness, while urban adolescents relied on fitness-oriented video games. Both rural and urban teens related having a lack of fitness-focused resources in their communities. Conclusions. Our findings indicate differences in adolescents’ application of technology for fitness. Despite adolescents’ differing uses of technology across communities, a common need exists to expand their resources. 1. Introduction The increasing prevalence of child and adolescent obesity is a significant public health concern [1, 2]. Approximately 34% of the population between the ages of 12 and 19 years is at risk of overweight and 17% is currently overweight [3]. Additionally, 12.6% of adolescents between 12 and 19 years were considered obese [4]. Children who are overweight or obese are more likely to stay overweight or obese into adulthood, thereby increasing their risk of insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease [5]. Despite significant efforts towards understanding and intervening in children and adolescents’ health behaviors surrounding healthy eating and exercise, obesity remains a significant public health issue. Innovative strategies towards reducing this epidemic are clearly needed. One innovative approach may involve technology. The majority of adolescents are increasingly “connected” in a virtual world, using different technologies on a daily basis. Adolescents are avid Internet users; over 90% report access and most report daily use [6]. Of these Internet-using teens, approximately half use