An Interactive Video Game for HIV Prevention in At-Risk Adolescents

用于预防高危青少年艾滋病毒的互动视频游戏

• 批准号: 8510694
• 负责人: Lynn Elizabeth Fiellin
• 金额: $ 69.89万
• 依托单位: YALE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-10 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8510694
• 关键词: AIDS prevention; AIDS/HIV problem; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Address; Adolescent; Affect; Age; Alcohol consumption; Alcohols; Anus; Artificial Intelligence; Attitude; Behavior; Behavioral; Cellular Phone; Characteristics; Choice Behavior; Cognitive; Computer software; Control Groups; Country; Coupled; Developing Countries; Development; Disease; Education; Educational Intervention; Educational process of instructing; Electronics; Elements; Enrollment; Environment; Epidemic; Ethnic Origin; Experimental Games; Foundations; Gender; Goals; HIV; HIV Infections; HIV risk; Health Promotion; Health behavior; Health behavior change; Hispanics; Home environment; Housing; Individual; Infection; International; Internet; Intervention; Knowledge; Lead; Learning; Life; Measures; Mediation; Minority; Minority Groups; Modeling; Not Hispanic or Latino; Outcome; Personal Digital Assistant; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Play; Populations at Risk; Prevalence; Prevention; Prevention strategy; Preventive Intervention; Primary Prevention; Psychology; Public Health; Race; Randomized; Randomized Clinical Trials; Research; Risk; Risk Behaviors; Risk Reduction; Risk Reduction Behavior; Risk-Taking; Role; Schools; Secondary Prevention; Self Efficacy; Series; Sex Behavior; Social Interaction; Software Tools; Technology; Testing; Time; Travel; Vagina; Video Games; Youth; after-school program; age group; alcohol risk; avoid sex; behavior change; behavior influence; cohort; design; experience; externalizing behavior; high risk; improved; meetings; member; neurobehavioral; positive youth development; prevent; primary outcome; programs; public health relevance; response; secondary outcome; sex; skills; skills training; social; social cognitive theory; social skills; theories; tool; transmission process; virtual

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Video games are ubiquitous, can improve health behavior, but have not been evaluated as a tool to promote protection from HIV transmission in minority early adolescents. A major challenge in HIV prevention for minority adolescents is capturing individuals in their environment - meeting individuals "where they live". The current application combines proven HIV prevention strategies and an interactive video game platform that incorporates virtual environments and intelligent conversant virtual characters to address this challenge. Research demonstrates that adolescents who acquire new knowledge, skills and attitudes in a video game, and practice these skills in the game, are more likely to behave similarly in real life. Therefore, the goal of this application is to adapt existing software to develop and refine an interactive video game designed to decrease HIV risk by teaching minority adolescents sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills. The game will be adapted with input from minority adolescents, and collaborators with expertise in positive youth development, social cognitive theory and self-efficacy, prospect theory and message framing, software and artificial intelligence development, and commercial game design. We will evaluate the efficacy of the game by conducting a randomized clinical trial in 330 minority youths, ages 9-14 years, attending an after-school and/or weekend youth program, who will be randomly assigned to play the interactive HIV prevention video game, "Retro-Warriors", or to play a commercial "off-the-shelf" video game. Subjects will play two sessions/week of their assigned game for four weeks. The primary outcome will be initiation of sexual activity, defined as the initiation of either vaginal or anal intercourse. Secondary outcomes include HIV risk behavior knowledge, social competency, self-efficacy, drug/alcohol use behaviors and overall risk-taking behaviors. We hypothesize that the experimental group will have lower rates of initiation of sexual activity and have higher knowledge scores at 1, 6, 12, and 24 months compared with the control group. We will also explore if selected baseline characteristics are associated with an improved response to the negotiation skills training intervention embedded in the interactive video game. Unique features of this intervention will include the use of virtual characters or avatars who can verbally respond to and interact with the player, a realistic virtual urban setting, the use of sex, drug/alcohol "risk challenges" that the subjects can practice repeatedly, the use of message framing according to prospect theory, a fun and engaging intervention that encourages repeated involvement, and the ability to track the players' choices and behaviors in the game. The successful implementation of this application will represent a paradigm shift, providing evidence for the role of interactive games as HIV/AIDS prevention in minority adolescents. Video game technology has the potential to expand the available vehicles for HIV prevention to the increasing number of electronic gaming platforms including the internet, personal digital assistants, and cell phones, thereby creating a new avenue for public health interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research is designed to develop and test a video game that will teach minority adolescents how to avoid sex, drug and alcohol risk behaviors that can lead to HIV infection. The research goes beyond the use of a game for education and proposes to create an interactive world in which the game players can engage in "role-playing" to learn to avoid risky behaviors. This application has far-reaching implications including the potential for this technology to "travel" with the player, i.e., the player ultimately can do sessions from home, on a console, a cell phone, or a personal digital assistant. There are international implications given that access to the internet is growing in developing countries and these technologies could be transferred to adolescents in countries experiencing a growing HIV epidemic but who have limited access to targeted risk reduction strategies. If successful, the results of this research will be video game technology that can improve individual and public health and decrease HIV transmission.

描述（由申请人提供）：视频游戏无处不在，可以改善健康行为，但尚未被评估为促进少数早期青少年中的艾滋病毒传播的工具。少数族裔青少年预防艾滋病毒的主要挑战是在环境中捕获个人 - 与个人遇到“他们的住所”。当前的应用程序结合了经过验证的艾滋病毒预防策略和交互式视频游戏平台，该平台结合了虚拟环境和智能熟悉的虚拟字符，以应对这一挑战。研究表明，在视频游戏中获得新知识，技能和态度并在游戏中练习这些技能的青少年更有可能在现实生活中行事。因此，该应用程序的目的是调整现有软件，以开发和完善互动视频游戏，旨在通过教导少数族裔青少年性，毒品和酒精谈判和拒绝技能来降低艾滋病毒风险。该游戏将适应少数群体青少年的意见，以及在积极的青年发展，社会认知理论和自我效能感，前景理论和信息框架，软件和人工智能发展以及商业游戏设计方面具有专业知识的合作者。我们将通过对330名9-14岁的少数族裔青年进行随机临床试验来评估游戏的功效，并参加了课后和/或周末青年计划，他们将被随机分配到进行互动HIV预防视频游戏，“ retro-warriors”，或者玩一款商业“玩商业”视频游戏。受试者将在分配的比赛中每周进行两次会议，为期四个星期。主要结果将是开始性活动，定义为阴道或肛门性交的启动。次要结果包括艾滋病毒风险行为知识，社会能力，自我效能感，毒品/酒精使用行为和整体冒险行为。我们假设与对照组相比，实验组的性活动开始率将较低，并在1、6、12和24个月的知识评分较高。我们还将探索是否与所选的基线特征与对交互式视频游戏中嵌入的谈判技巧培训干预措施的反应有关。这种干预的独特功能将包括使用虚拟角色或化身的使用，他们可以口头响应并与玩家互动，一种现实的虚拟城市环境，使用性的使用，毒品/酒精“风险挑战”，受试者可以反复练习，使用消息框架的使用，根据前景理论的使用，一种有趣的干预措施，鼓励了一种重复参与的参与者，以及玩家的能力和行为，并能够跟踪玩法和行为。该应用程序的成功实施将代表范式转变，为互动游戏作为艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防在少数族裔青少年中的作用提供了证据。视频游戏技术有可能将可用的预防艾滋病毒预防车辆扩展到越来越多的电子游戏平台，包括互联网，个人数字助手和手机，从而为公共卫生干预措施创造了新的途径。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究旨在开发和测试视频游戏，该游戏将教会少数族裔青少年如何避免性，毒品和酒精风险行为，从而导致艾滋病毒感染。这项研究超出了对教育游戏的使用，并提议创建一个互动世界，在该世界中，游戏玩家可以从事“角色扮演”以学习避免冒险行为。该应用程序具有深远的含义，包括该技术与玩家“旅行”的潜力，即，玩家最终可以在家中，控制台，手机或个人数字助手进行会议。鉴于发展中国家获得互联网的访问量正在增长，并且这些技术可以转移到经历越来越多的HIV流行的国家的青少年，但他们可以将这些技术转移到越来越多的艾滋病毒流行，但他们获得有针对性的降低风险策略的机会有限。如果成功，这项研究的结果将是可以改善个人和公共健康并减少艾滋病毒传播的视频游戏技术。