Charlotte Area Resource Explorer (C.A.R.E): Utilizing Mobile Technology to Increase Access to Community Resources

Background:

African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos are most likely to live in areas with limited access to quality healthcare, safe places to exercise, and healthy food options. This lack of access in minority communities leads to disproportionate rates of chronic disease and ultimately widens the gap of health equity.

Program background:

In 2019, RAO Community Health developed and launched the Charlotte Area Resource Explorer (C.A.R.E) app to connect users to local social and healthcare resources. Health disparities the app helps to address include breastfeeding, immunization, and nutrition-related chronic diseases. C.A.R.E Village events are coordinated as a way for featured partners on the app to engage in an interactive resource event for the community. The three C.A.R.E Villages that have been held to date have led to many successful outcomes including an increase in app downloads, user retention, and over 300 community members being connected to resources.

Evaluation Methods and Results:

As of March 20, 2023, the C.A.R.E app has been downloaded over 10,000 times on both Android and iOS. The app holds 4.9 stars on both the Apple Store and Google Play and has an average retention rate of 22%. The COVID-19 social assessment has been completed over 30,000 times and more than 10,000 people have accessed resources through C.A.R.E. We discovered that the Diffusion of Innovation Theory is challenging to overcome.

Conclusions:

The app is still being utilized in the community today and has led to an increase in the knowledge and awareness of health and wellness resources within our priority population. To improve user experience, artificial intelligence and language options should be added to introduce user personalization and preferences. Strategies for expansion into additional communities include conducting a thorough needs assessment.

Implications for research and/or practice:

We found that older users were less likely to download and use the app regularly compared to younger users. This discovery is consistent with the Diffusion of Innovation theory that certain people will adopt new technology and product faster than others depending on the ease of use, accessibility, affordability, and familiarity. The implications of these findings show that tailored media messaging towards age groups and demographics is necessary to promote a health equity app. The findings also show that access is not the only issue communities of color are dealing with--utilization is one of the biggest issues in health equity. It is easy to connect communities with resources, but ensuring they follow through and utilize those resources pose a challenge.