Games for health, including digital videogames and gaming-based approaches, are increasingly being used in health promotion research and practice. Recently published research has shown that videogames have significant potential to promote healthy behaviors among youth and adolescents. Yet, there is a lack of available evidence-based resources to guide practitioners on the integration of games into tobacco prevention and smoking cessation interventions. To address this gap, expert researchers and game developers were interviewed to further define games for health, explore the current research, and provide recommendations for developing, evaluating, and promoting effective anti-tobacco games.
Nationally recognized experts on game development, games for health, tobacco, and health behavior were asked to participate. A qualitative analysis of 25 in-depth individual interviews using a constant comparative approach for emerging themes was conducted.
Main themes that emerged from the data analysis included the following: (1) the current state of games for health research to facilitate health behavior change, (2) strategies for how to develop and evaluate games for quality and impact, and (3) recommendations for how to effectively design tobacco prevention and smoking cessation educational videogames that engage youth and adolescents.
The synthesized findings identified through these expert interviews offer stakeholders strategies for how to incorporate games for health within their current and future work. Specific recommendations are presented for developers and researchers to consider when developing and evaluating videogames for tobacco prevention and smoking cessation targeted at youth and adolescents.

The proportion of people in the United States who are members of at least two ethnic groups is projected to increase to 10% by the year 2050. This makes addressing health disparities and health inequities in minority populations increasingly more difficult. Minority populations, including those who classify themselves as African American and Hispanic, are using mobile phones to access health information via the internet more frequently than those who classify themselves as white, providing unique opportunities for those in public health and health education to reach these traditionally underserved populations using mobile health (mHealth) interventions.

Thank you so much for coming here today. My name is ______________and I am here to facilitate this focus group. The reason you were invited to participate in this focus group session is because we want to collect information on what all should be included in a scale to measure HPV vaccine communication competence and comfort level among healthcare providers. We would like learn from conversations with a few of you about your own ideas on how this should be done. This session will last approximately 60 minutes and will audio recorded so that no bit of information is missed. ____________, our Research Assistant will also be note taking during this session to capture your ideas. Audio recordings will not be heard by anybody other than the research team and your responses will be kept confidential. The findings will only be released in the form of general topics with no identifiable personal information. Do I have your permission to record our discussion? (After permission is granted moderator will move on to focus group questions).

Games for health, including digital videogames and gaming-based approaches, are increasingly being used in health promotion research and practice. Recently published research has shown that videogames have significant potential to promote healthy behaviors among youth and adolescents. Yet, there is a lack of available evidence-based resources to guide practitioners on the integration of games into tobacco prevention and smoking cessation interventions. To address this gap, expert researchers and game developers were interviewed to further define games for health, explore the current research, and provide recommendations for developing, evaluating, and promoting effective anti-tobacco games. Nationally recognized experts on game development, games for health, tobacco, and health behavior were asked to participate. A qualitative analysis of 25 in-depth individual interviews using a constant comparative approach for emerging themes was conducted. Main themes that emerged from the data ...

The proportion of people in the United States who are members of at least two ethnic groups is projected to increase to 10% by the year 2050. This makes addressing health disparities and health inequities in minority populations increasingly more difficult. Minority populations, including those who classify themselves as African American and Hispanic, are using mobile phones to access health information via the internet more frequently than those who classify themselves as white, providing unique opportunities for those in public health and health education to reach these traditionally underserved populations using mobile health (mHealth) interventions. The objective of this review was to assess studies conducted in the United States that have used mHealth tools and strategies to develop and implement interventions in underserved populations. This review also examines the ways in which mHealth strategies are being employed in public health interventions to these priority population ...

Background.Digital games are increasingly popular among college age men and present themselves as an ideal platform to deliver HPV interventions. Customizing avatars in role playing games encourage intrinsic motivation in the learning process because of self-representation. Proteus Effect research suggests that the representations people make are an adaption of their actual/ ideal self and dictate how one conforms to the expectations and identity cues of their avatar. Objective/Purpose: This study evaluated the effectiveness of a digital gaming intervention aimed at increasing HPV risk perceptions, self- efficacy and behavioral intention to receive the HPV vaccine among college age men (18 - 26). Methods. This randomized control trial employed a 2 X 2 fully-crossed between subjects and tested the effects of avatar characters (assigned/customized) and perception of self (ideal/actual) on HPV risk perception, HPV vaccine self-efficacy and behavioral intent to receive the HPV vaccine. ...

High-risk stains of human papillomavirus (HPV) is linked to causing cancer, is highly prevalent, and has increased incidence among adolescents and young adults. However, vaccination rates are low. Health care provider recommendation is the biggest influencer toward vaccine uptake. Since more health care providers are using digital health technologies in their medical practices, this study investigated the feasibility of technology to increase informed decision making. A convenience sample of 210 students completed an online survey. Participants were 18-25 years of age (88%), female (85%), Caucasian (60%), and never been diagnosed with HPV (92.9%). Overwhelmingly, participants owned a smartphone (98.9%) and used mobile apps for health/health tracking (65.5%). However, only 29.3% indicated that they received text messages from their health care provider. Digital health technology can be a cost-effective way for increasing HPV knowledge, removing barriers, and increasing vaccine uptake. Health care providers should explore using various platforms to empower their health care decision making.

UNSTRUCTURED The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US. HPV attributes to most cancers including anal, oral, cervical and penile. Despite infection rates in the United States recommendations and communication campaigns have traditionally focused on females. Because of this, males lack knowledge of reasons for vaccination, the benefits of being vaccinated and their risks overall. Gaming as a health education strategy can be beneficial for this key demographic because of the popularity and gaming mechanism that can promote behavior change. Objective: This study sought to explore the relationship between gamification and HPV vaccine uptake. Materials and Methods: In total twenty two (n=22) interviews were conducted with experts in the fields of cancer prevention, sexual and reproductive health, public health, game design, technology and health communication on how a game should be developed to increase HPV vaccination rates among males. ...

This study sought to identify communication preferences for tailoring mHealth interventions on HPV and what information in messaging should be included to increase HPV education, vaccination and schedule adherence among youth. A convenient sample of 210 students answered an online survey. Participants were 18–25 years old (88%), female (85.6%), Caucasian (60%), never been diagnosed with HPV (92.9%) and completed all three doses (61.6%). Our respondents were initially hesitant to use SMS text messages and mobile apps for HPV primarily due to privacy, memory and data cost concerns but thought the personalization options would increase message saliency and information trustworthiness if sent by a healthcare provider. Healthcare providers should use the information to tailor HPV and sexual health interventions. 1 Darville et al.: Utilizing mHealth technology to increase HPV knowledge and HPV vaccine uptake in adolescents Published by UTC Scholar, 2018

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Persistent infection with HPV can cause various cancers; however, HPV vaccination can prevent infections associated with high risk, cancerous strains of the virus. As it relates to HPV, college age men have been identified as one of the catch-up vaccination groups. Among college age men, gaming is an extremely popular extracurricular activity. Further, video games have emerged as a popular public health intervention tool. Therefore, this study aims to collect qualitative data on how to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a gaming intervention to increase HPV risk perceptions, improve self-efficacy and increase intention to receive the HPV vaccine among male college students (18-26 years old). Methods: Four focus group sessions ranging from eight to ten individuals were conducted among male college students from one large research-intensive university in the South. Using grounded theory, data from focus group interviews were coded using NVivo software to identify emergent themes. Results: Participants emphasized that although customization was not viewed as important by college aged males, the ability to tailor in game experiences or experience different things each time they played (creative freedom) was more important. They encouraged that the digital game be created on a mobile platform, incorporate health messages, and be informative to reach their population. Furthermore, they suggested innovative way to disseminate the game, which included having health department/health care providers prescribe the game to patients as an end of clinical interaction strategy. Conclusions: College age men, are natural avid gamers, enjoy game play, and can engage in learning online or offline. While platform preference varies among gamer type, college age men in our study emphasized that mobile based gaming is the most advantageous way to increase knowledge/awareness and encourage positive in game behavior which can impact out of game behaviors such as vaccination. Because of the level of access and natural disposition of mHealth technology seen as an "extension of the self", games for health developers should consider the mobile platform as the ideal for the target demographic.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches are being leveraged more and more in efforts to improve health equity. Informing the building of community-academic partnerships, CBPR draws on the community’s expressed needs and engages stakeholders in future intervention development. To date, however, little has been published on such efforts targeting the health of young Black men (ages 18-24), despite this population’s disproportionate need. In this paper, we describe the formation of a community-academic partnership in a federally qualified health center, with the goal of improving the health of young Black men in Detroit, Michigan. After conducting a needs assessment, we built upon existing networks to form a Community Advisory Board (CAB). We held three community forums during which CAB members highlighted key health issues in their community and described how they could be addressed. We developed a plan for future research and community engagement based on community input. Finally, we provide insights on community engagement strategies, forum structure, setting boundaries, trust-building, and valuable information in addressing the inequities in health that affect young Black men.

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. HPV attributes to most cancers including anal, oral, cervical, and penile. Despite infection rates in the United States, recommendations and communication campaigns have traditionally focused on females. Because of this, males lack knowledge about reasons for vaccination, the benefits of being vaccinated, and their HPV risk, overall. Gaming as a health education strategy can be beneficial as mechanism that can promote behavior change for this key demographic because of the popularity of gaming. Objective: We sought to explore the relationship between gamification and HPV vaccine uptake. Methods: Interviews were conducted with experts (n=22) in the fields of cancer prevention, sexual and reproductive health, public health, game design, technology, and health communication on how a game should be developed to increase HPV vaccination rates among males. Results: Overwhelmingly, theoretical models such as the health belief model were identified with key constructs such as self-efficacy and risk perception. Experts also suggested using intervention mapping and logic models as planning tools for health promotion interventions utilizing a digital game as a medium. In game and out of game measures were discussed as assessments for quality and impact by our expert panel. Conclusions: This study shows that interventions should focus on whether greater utilization of serious games, and the incorporation of theory and standardized methods, can encourage young men to get vaccinated and to complete the series of HPV vaccinations.

Recent interest was noted in the evaluation community in expanding focus from program implementation and outcomes to program design and planning. One important step for moving in this direction is to examine existing evaluation models and to assess their relative strengths and weaknesses for planning purposes. We present a comparative case study of applying logic models and the action model/change model schema for planning the Learning Community Program in Taiwan. Lessons learned from these applications indicate that logic models are relatively easy to learn and effective for identifying major program components and indicators, but not sufficient in articulating the theoretical significance of the program.  On the other hand, the action model/change model schema requires more time to learn and practice, but it has relative advantages for providing theoretical insights on contextual factors and causal mechanisms of the program unlike logic models. This comparison can serve as a guide...

Recent interest was noted in the evaluation community in expanding focus from program implementation and outcomes to program design and planning. One important step for moving in this direction is to examine existing evaluation models and to assess their relative strengths and weaknesses for planning purposes. We present a comparative case study of applying logic models and the action model/change model schema for planning the Learning Community Program in Taiwan. Lessons learned from these applications indicate that logic models are relatively easy to learn and effective for identifying major program components and indicators, but not sufficient in articulating the theoretical significance of the program.  On the other hand, the action model/change model schema requires more time to learn and practice, but it has relative advantages for providing theoretical insights on contextual factors and causal mechanisms of the program unlike logic models. This comparison can serve as a guide...