Evaluating the social acceptability of an application-blocking-based contingency management intervention

Many adults and youth in the United States engage in multiple high risk health behaviors. Research has historically suggested that if these behaviors can be changed, major health conditions could be changed at both the individual and population levels. Contingency Management is a well-validated method of changing health behaviors, however the costs associated with CM prevent it from being widely available. Smartphone applications are becoming increasingly popular in the healthcare sector, and most American have a smartphone with apps they find enjoyable and distracting. A potential avenue for CM dissemination is the development of a smartphone program that utilizes the pre-established reward value of smartphone apps as a tool for change. The following study is exploratory research designed to assess the acceptability of this concept, called Re-Connect. This concept proposes to block apps users spend large amounts of time on, with unlocking access to those apps made contingent upon meeting the user\u27s health goals. Out of the sample surveyed (N = 146) 63.01% reported that they would be likely to use Re-Connect, and 67.81% reported that they would be likely to recommend it. Participants also rated their likelihood of use across three pairs of feature variants: Re-Connect sets goals vs. user sets goals, Re-Connect chooses apps vs. user chooses apps, and unlocking apps for a period of time vs. the entire day. Participants favored more personal control for both goal setting and app choice and found unlocking for the day to be more acceptable than for a specified period of time

Identifying Video Game Preferences Among Adults Interested in Quitting Smoking Cigarettes: Survey Study.

BACKGROUND: Smoking is the most prevalent cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Although most individuals who smoke express a desire to quit smoking, only a small percentage are successful. Serious games have become popular in health sectors as a potential avenue for delivering a scalable treatment that is both accessible and engaging for the smoking population. Several smoking cessation games have already been developed, but these games feature a broad range of gameplay elements and are not necessarily based on existing video game preferences in the general or smoking population. OBJECTIVE: To better inform treatment development, this study aims to evaluate video game genre preferences among treatment-seeking individuals who smoke (N=473). METHODS: Participants responded to a screening survey to enroll in a larger, serious game intervention for smoking cessation. During this screening survey, participants were asked to disclose their favorite video games, which resulted in 277 unique game titles. These titles were coded for genre categories based on publisher listings and game features. The genres were then analyzed for the frequency of reporting overall and across age groups. RESULTS: Action, Role-Playing, and Action-Adventure were the most reported genres among adults aged ≤34 years; Action, Action-Adventure, and Logic were the most reported genres among adults aged 35-44 years; and Logic and Action were the most reported genres among adults aged ≥45 years. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that treatment-seeking individuals who smoke have different game preferences across age groups, and the data provide novel information to inform the development of future serious games targeting the smoking population that are tailored to the preferences of their age group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03929003; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03929003