Sci-lynx: Development and Pilot Study of a Physical Activity and Social Support App for People with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI)

Research Objectives: To develop and pilot test a new smartphone app with goals to reduce physical inactivity, social isolation, and loneliness among people with SCI.

Design: SCI-Lynx was developed using an iterative user-centered design process with six focus groups comprised of 16 people with SCI. A single blind randomized controlled pilot trial was conducted to evaluate feasibility, acceptability, usability, and evidence of efficacy.

Setting: Participants live in the community and all study activities were remotely delivered.

Participants: Thirty-two individuals (22% female) mean age 49±18 years and mean 20 years since SCI injury, at least one-year post-SCI who used a wheelchair as their primary mobility mode were enrolled. Participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to the intervention and control groups.

Interventions: Participants in the intervention group downloaded the SCI-Lynx app from either the Apple App Store or Google Play and were asked to use SCI-Lynx for 4 weeks to record their physical activity and to connect socially to other individuals in the application. The control group continued usual care.

Main Outcome Measures: Primary outcomes were participant ratings of acceptability and usability of SCI-Lynx and frequency of use. Secondary outcomes included validated measures to assess exercise self-efficacy, social support for exercise, loneliness, self-reported and qualitative evaluations of the app through individual usability interviews.

Results: The focus groups recommended several changes to the design, content, and format of the app through the iterative app development process. Participants reported moderate levels of loneliness and low levels of social support for exercise at baseline.

Conclusions: The involvement our focus groups of people with SCI led to significant modifications to app content and design. The present report highlights the development, adaption, and pilot testing of a mobile application that has the aim of reducing social isolation, loneliness, and physical inactivity for individuals with SCI.

Author(s) Disclosures: Dr Latham co-founded a small business (currently non-revenue generating) called LynxHealth LLC. While SCI-Lynx and all other consumer platforms will always be free for consumers, the small business is a mechanism to allow ongoing development and support for the Health-Lynx mobile platforms. To avoid conflicts of interest, Dr Latham will contribute to the product design and development study protocols but will not be involved in data collection or analyses. Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research of Mass General Brigham, Boston, MA healthcare deemed there is no conflict of interest.
No conflicts of interested to report for the remaining authors.