Thanks to a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the
National Institutes of Health,
Natalie Watson-Singleton, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, will be able to further develop a mobile-health app for African Americans.
The $735,507 grant will support funding for the project in two phases. “We desire to develop a health app that blends our community’s existing healing wisdom and practices with evidenced-based techniques,” said Dr. Watson-Singleton.
Results from Phase I revealed that African Americans who used the app for two weeks demonstrated significant reductions in stress. The Phase II of the project titled, “Culturally Responsible Stress Reduction: A Mobile Mindfulness Application to Support Health Promotion for African Americans,” will allow Dr. Watson-Singleton to complete development on a fully-powered mHealth app designed to reduce the disproportionate rates of adverse stress-related health outcomes in the Black community like heart disease, diabetes and depression.