Strategies Chosen by YMSM During Goal Setting to Reduce Risk for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections: Results From the Keep It Up! 2.0 Prevention Trial

Using video games to improve the sexual health of young people aged 15-25 years: A rapid review (Preprint)

Background

Sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies among young people remain public health concerns in many countries. To date, interventions that address these concerns have had limited success. Serious games are increasingly being used as educational tools in health and professional public education. Although acknowledged as having great potential, few studies have evaluated the use of serious games in sexual health education among young people, and to date, there have been no published reviews of these studies.

Objective

This study aims to assess the effects of video game–based sexual health interventions for risky sexual behavior in young people aged between 15 and 25 years.

Methods

A rapid review of randomized controlled trials and quasi–randomized controlled trials was performed. The search included the following bibliographic databases: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Scopus. A total of 2 reviewers independently screened 50% (35/70) of the retrieved articles during the full-text screening phase.

Results

From a total of 459 identified citations, after removing duplicates, 327 (71.2%) articles were deemed eligible for title and abstract screening. Of the 327 articles, 70 (21.4%) full texts were screened, from which 10 (3.1%) articles (evaluating 11 different games) were included in the review. The findings highlighted the considerable diversity in video game–based interventions and assessed sexual health outcomes. Although there were some promising findings in outcome studies using game-based interventions, the results across studies were mixed.

Conclusions

Although game interventions for sexual health have been in existence for almost three decades, relatively few studies have evaluated them, and the results of previous outcome studies have been mixed. Moreover, there is little clarity regarding which specific elements of a game facilitate positive outcomes. We provide recommendations for future researchers developing video game–based interventions to improve sexual health in young people.

Electronic and other new media technology interventions for HIV care and prevention: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION

Electronic and other new media technologies (eHealth) can facilitate large-scale dissemination of information and effective delivery of interventions for HIV care and prevention. There is a need to both monitor a rapidly changing pipeline of technology-based care and prevention methods and to assess whether the interventions are appropriately diversified. We systematically review and critically appraise the research pipeline of eHealth interventions for HIV care and prevention, including published studies and other funded projects.

METHODS

Two peer-reviewed literature databases were searched for studies describing the development, trial testing or implementation of new technology interventions, published from September 2014 to September 2018. The National Institutes of Health database of grants was searched for interventions still in development. Interventions were included if eHealth was utilized and an outcome directly related to HIV treatment or prevention was targeted. We summarized each intervention including the stage of development, eHealth mode of delivery, target population and stage of the HIV care and prevention continua targeted.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Of 2178 articles in the published literature, 113 were included with 84 unique interventions described. The interventions utilize a variety of eHealth technologies and target various points on the prevention and care continua, with greater emphasis on education, behaviour change and testing than linkage to medical care. There were a variety of interventions for HIV care support but none for PrEP care. Most interventions were developed for populations in high income countries. An additional 62 interventions with funding were found in the development pipeline, with greater emphasis on managing HIV and PrEP care.

CONCLUSIONS

Our systematic review found a robust collection of eHealth interventions in the published literature as well as unpublished interventions still in development. In the published literature, there is an imbalance of interventions favouring education and behaviour change over linkage to care, retention in care, and adherence, especially for PrEP. The next generation of interventions already in the pipeline might address these neglected areas of care and prevention, but the development process is slow. Researchers need new methods for more efficient and expedited intervention development so that current and future needs are addressed.