The design and implementation of a randomized controlled trial of a risk reduction and human immunodeficiency virus prevention videogame intervention in minority adolescents: PlayForward: Elm City Stories.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To address the need for risk behavior reduction and human immunodeficiency virus prevention interventions that capture adolescents "where they live," we created a tablet-based videogame to teach skills and knowledge and influence psychosocial antecedents for decreasing risk and preventing human immunodeficiency virus infection in minority youth in schools, after-school programs, and summer camps.

Methods

We developed PlayForward: Elm City Stories over a 2-year period, working with researchers, commercial game designers, and staff and teens from community programs. The videogame PlayForward provides an interactive world where players, using an avatar, "travel" through time, facing challenges such as peer pressure to drink alcohol or engage in risky sexual behaviors

SUBMITTER: Fiellin LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4942329 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature