Table 2 Sample Coded Text for Barriers and Facilitators of and Improvement for Weight Management Program among Completers and Non-participants

 Technology learning curve & burden

Completer: “… Like if I ate cheese toast, I’d like to get something I guess close to cheese toast, but it wouldn’t just you know, that was the thing like that.”

Non-participant: “I don’t know how great it would be for me because it requires consistency. I might start off tracking it, keeping up with it, but once I get busy or I get off track for any reason, I’m done ...”

Competing priorities

Completer: “It’s a lot of activity going on with the church and stuff … “

Non-participant: “My life is, I just have so much, you know ...”

 Accountability

Completer: “But the fact that you have to come back, and someone’s expecting you to do that. Even if you don’t lose the weight, they are expecting you to eat right.”

Non-participant: “For me, it would be great to learn healthier ways of doing things and to gain the support …”

 Group Support

Completer: “It’s good to be as a group. One person doesn’t know everything, but [in] a group session we can communicate.”

 Interventionist Support

Completer: “That kind of motivated us because y’all coming down here and that’s a big help to see somebody caring.”

 Technology support

Completer: “I did do the YouTube each time missed … “

Non-participant: “It can coach you through it.”

 Convenience

Non-participant: “When it will be offered, how often it will be offered, what would be the requirements?”

 Limited Cost

Non-participant: “I know you’re gonna have to pay for everything. You’re gonna have to put something in. You have to pay to get healthy, it’s expensive … but at the same time it’s even more expensive if you add up all the doctor’s bills and all the medicines you have to buy.””

Health Benefits

Non-participant: “Healthier, you know, healthier. You know just feels good if you can come off your high blood pressure medicines, it just feels real good …”

 Easier diet and activity tracking

Completer: “The tracker app was, cause I mean it’s hard to track anyway, but it’s even harder when you have to pick and choose or flip and flop...”

 Care with Age Labels

Completer: “So maybe the age limit needs to be a little more because you don’t get a lot of participation from younger people. Our group was older people -- we’re not old, it was more like 40-somethings, not 20-somethings.”