Web-based and Interactive Virtual Environments for Children with Food Allergies

为食物过敏儿童提供基于网络的交互式虚拟环境

• 批准号: 8455985
• 负责人: ELIZABETH L MCQUAID
• 金额: $ 25.73万
• 依托单位: VIRTUALLY BETTER, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-03-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8455985
• 关键词: Adoption; Adult; Affect; Anaphylaxis; Architecture; Area; Asthma; Behavior; Behavioral; Celiac Disease; Child; Childhood; Chronic; Chronic Disease; Clinical Psychology; Clinical Trials; Collaborations; Collection; Complement; Computer software; Computers; Data; Decision Making; Decision Trees; Development; Diabetes Mellitus; Disease; Disease Management; Education; Environment; Family; Family member; Feedback; Food; Food Hypersensitivity; Frequencies; Future; Gastrointestinal tract structure; Goals; Health Professional; Home environment; IgE; Information Dissemination; Ingestion; Internet; Intervention; Interview; Knowledge; Lead; Learning; Life; Measures; Mediating; Mediation; Methodology; Methods; Motivation; Online Systems; Outcome; Parents; Persons; Phase; Play; Prevalence; Psychological reinforcement; Public Health; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Reaction; Resources; Respiratory System; Respiratory tract structure; Rewards; Risk; Role; School-Age Population; Schools; Self Efficacy; Self Management; Skin; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Social Environment; Structure; Support Groups; Symptoms; System; Tablets; Target Populations; Technology; Telephone; Testing; Time; Token Economy; Training and Education; base; body system; burden of illness; clinical efficacy; commercialization; cost effectiveness; data management; design; digital; efficacy testing; high risk; improved; innovation; models and simulation; next generation; parental involvement; pressure; programs; psychoeducation; public health relevance; skill acquisition; skills; social; statistics; successful intervention; treatment program; usability; user-friendly; virtual; virtual reality

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pediatric Food Allergy (FA) is recognized as a serious public health concern that affects approximately 4-8% of children, with symptoms affecting multiple organ systems, including skin, the respiratory tract, and the GI tract. Food-induced anaphylaxis, which is a rapid, potentially life-threatening reaction, can occur in more serious cases. Despite the substantial burden of disease management and associated negative quality of life effects, very few resources exist to promote effective strategies for managing FA. Moreover, most resources targeting this population emphasize information dissemination and education, either in-person or via the web, and typically focus on parents, with few resources designed for affected children. The central goal of Phases I & II of this proposed SBIR is to develop an engaging, interactive web- based intervention for school-aged children with FA that will increase knowledge, improve self-efficacy to manage the disease, and ultimately reduce risk of negative outcomes. Software-based interventions targeting children for various pediatric conditions have increased in availability and accessibility. Virtual Reality (VR) approaches offer distinct advantages over traditional interventions in providing virtual skills-based practice with interactive feedback and highly engaging formats of psychoeducation. This Phase I SBIR will build a user-friendly, interactive, and affordable web-based intervention, with a high potential fo broad dissemination, adaptation and commercialization across different disease conditions. The web-based intervention, which includes virtual experiential scenarios in a school cafeteria, will consist of three related technical components: (a) the VR software engine that serves as the architecture of the program, enabling the creation of interactive VR environments, individualized delivery of content, and collection and management of data, (b) the experiential scenarios that target knowledge and behavioral skills practice in social contexts, and (c) a token economy with rewards to be used in a virtual game, which will enhance motivation, engagement and usability of the intervention. Thirty-two children with IgE-mediated FA and their parents will participate in a 4-week intervention pilot, in which they will be prompted to use the system three times weekly. We will evaluate the feasibility, credibility, and acceptability of the treatment program via semi-structured interviews with parents and children, and digital questionnaire assessments throughout the software program. Preliminary clinical efficacy to increase knowledge and self-efficacy regarding FA decision-making and management will also be evaluated. This intervention will surpass existing approaches for child-focused software programs in interactivity, ease of use, and acceptance and promotion by health care professionals. If successful, we envision that the VR program will serve as a template for interactive VR interventions for children with other chronic conditions requiring self-management, such as asthma, diabetes, and celiac disease. The promise of commercial opportunity is significant in an era in which there is an increasingly widespread access to and everyday use of computers, smart phones, and tablet technologies.

描述（由申请人提供）：小儿食品过敏（FA）被认为是严重的公共卫生问题，影响了大约4-8％的儿童，症状影响了多个器官系统，包括皮肤，呼吸道和胃肠道。在更严重的情况下，食物诱导的过敏反应是一种快速，潜在的威胁生命的反应。尽管疾病管理的重大负担和相关的负面质量影响，但很少有资源来促进管理FA的有效策略。此外，针对该人群的大多数资源都强调了面对面或通过网络的信息传播和教育，通常专注于父母，而为受影响的孩子设计的资源很少。该拟议的SBIR阶段I＆II的核心目标是为具有FA的学龄儿童开发一种引人入胜的，互动的基于网络的干预措施，以提高知识，提高自我效能，以控制疾病，并最终降低负面结果的风险。针对各种儿科状况的儿童的基于软件的干预措施在可用性和可及性方面增加了。虚拟现实（VR）方法在传统干预措施中提供了不同的优势，可以通过交互式反馈和高度吸引人的心理教育形式提供基于虚拟技能的实践。 I阶段I SBIR将建立一种用户友好，互动和负担得起的基于Web的干预措施，并在不同疾病条件下具有广泛的FO传播，适应和商业化。 The web-based intervention, which includes virtual experiential scenarios in a school cafeteria, will consist of three related technical components: (a) the VR software engine that serves as the architecture of the program, enabling the creation of interactive VR environments, individualized delivery of content, and collection and management of data, (b) the experiential scenarios that target knowledge and behavioral skills practice in social contexts, and (c) a token economy with rewards to be used在虚拟游戏中，这将增强干预的动力，参与度和可用性。三十二个患有IGE介导的FA的孩子及其父母将参加 为期4周的干预飞行员，将提示他们每周使用该系统。我们将通过与父母和孩子的半结构化访谈以及整个软件计划中的数字问卷评估来评估治疗计划的可行性，信誉和可接受性。还将评估提高有关FA决策和管理的知识和自我效能的初步临床功效。这种干预措施将在互动性，易用性以及卫生保健专业人员的接受和促进方面超越注重儿童软件程序的现有方法。如果成功的话，我们设想VR计划将作为需要自我管理的其他慢性疾病的儿童进行互动VR干预的模板，例如哮喘，糖尿病和腹腔疾病。在这个时代，商业机会的承诺在一个时代越来越广泛地访问计算机，智能手机和平板电脑技术的时代。