The latest issue of the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology was just released, and it includes a special section summarizing all the talks given at the NIH-sponsored Virtual Reality Technologies for Research and Education in Obesity and Diabetes Symposium.

During this meeting, researchers gathered in Bethesda, Maryland to “explore the potential of VR technologies for behavioral and neuroscience studies in diabetes and obesity, and the practical potential of VR technologies for regimen adherence, nutrition, physical activity and other behavioral lifestyle changes associated with diabetes and obesity.”

The publications.

Here are just a few of the things you will learn in this month’s issue:

• Behavioral Science in Video Games for Children’s Diet and Physical Activity Change: Key Research Needs  read now
• Turning Virtual Reality into Reality: A Checklist to Ensure Virtual Reality Studies of Eating Behavior and Physical Activity Parallel the Real World  read now
• What Virtual Reality Research in Addictions Can Tell Us about the Future of Obesity Assessment and Treatment  read now
• The Key to Unlocking the Virtual Body: Virtual Reality in the Treatment of Obesity and Eating Disorders read now
• New Directions in the Use of Virtual Reality for Food Shopping: Marketing and Education Perspectives  read now
• The Potential of Virtual Reality Technologies to Improve Adherence to Weight Loss Behaviors and Outcomes  read now

In summary, if you want to learn about how virtual gaming and virtual worlds are being used to research, treat, prevent, and educate about diabetes and obesity, the March 2011 issue of J Diabetes Sci Technol is for you.  Enjoy!

According to Dr. Fiellin:

The goal of our project is to provide young teens the opportunity to practice and acquire skills in order to avoid or reduce their risk behavior. The hope is that this reduction in risk would then translate to preventing new cases of HIV.

From the rest of the interview, I picked up on some key points about health games as they relate to diseases such as HIV/AIDS:

• Young teens are already engaged in game play
• Games allow for repeated practice and play
• Highly engaging (if designed well)
• Portability – can be applied to various mobile platforms
• Opportunities to improve knowledge, prevention efforts and increase adherence
• Global application increasing

Although we don’t have an official name for the game just yet, I’m looking forward to seeing what the folks over at Yale come up with as far as design. Last year, we highlighted a game called +Click that looked at helping HIV positive teenagers make positive choices. Hopefully this will motivate other groups to think outside the box with this disease.

This is no good folks. Especially for our young people who are continually being exposed to sexually explicit material on and offline. It is vital that we continue to raise the bar on how we educate them on making intelligent decisions about their lifestyles that will not only protect them from HIV/AIDS but will encourage them to evaluate other choices. In the health gaming world, interactivity is key and today I was pleased to come across news of a game in the works that addresses HIV/AIDS among teens.

The reality is, there are young people already infected with HIV but that doesn’t mean the education stops for them – in fact, it’s all the more important. Last week, news surfaced about +CLICK, an interactive game aimed at HIV positive teenagers to help them make smart decisions and help manage their condition.

The game was created from a research study from the folks over at the University of Texas School of Public Health. The study participants were 32 young people; mean age was 17.8; 62.5 percent were females; 68.8 percent were black; 28.1 percent were Hispanic; 56.2 percent acquired HIV perinatally; 43.8 percent were infected through behavior; and 68.8 percent were sexually experienced.

“We wanted to create +CLICK so that we could help educate youth on the importance of making proper, healthy decisions to protect their relationships and themselves as well as help to reduce transmission of [HIV],” said Christine Markham, PhD, lead investigator and an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health.

+CLICK is in the final stages of development and according to the article, should be available to the public in about 6 months. I’m pretty excited about this namely because I haven’t heard of anything that could have the potential of positive impact for youth with HIV. This is quite an innovative way to begin tackling a need that has been around for a while.  The results of the pilot study are available in the May 2009 edition of AIDS Care.

Another interesting game, that you can check out right now, was developed by UNICEF and their Voices of Youth program. What Would You Do? is a basic text/Flash based online game that allows young people to involve themselves in a scenario that most likely would happen as they interact with their peers. The game focuses on prevention messages and giving the young person the ability to think about the consequences of social activities as it applies to HIV/AIDS.

Here at healthGAMERS we are all about the serious and important impact that games can and will have on our society’s health. Stay tuned as we await the launch of +CLICK – you know we will be covering it!

For more information on how the Web is being used to fight against HIV/AIDS, do yourself a favor and check out the AIDS.gov blog for great case studies and initiatives.