Photo Credit: Gleitfrosch
In a study involving 287 teenagers, the PlayTest! video game intervention significantly improved attitudes towards HIV testing and counseling (HTC), enhancing intentions, understanding, and self-efficacy, indicating its potential to positively impact HTC behavior among adolescents.
The following is a summary of “A Serious Video Game Targeting HIV Testing and Counseling: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” published in the February 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Boomer, et al.
Teenagers are the age group least likely to know if they have HIV, and they may give the virus to others without knowing it. For a study, researchers sought to see how the original video game intervention, PlayTest!, changed people’s behavior before they got HIV testing and counseling (HTC).
The 287 teens who took part were chosen between 2018 and 2020; 48% were women, the ages ranged from 14 to 18 (mean age = 15.4 years), and 76% were from racial minorities. Randomly, each participant was given either PlayTest! or a set of control games to play after school, about once a week for an hour at a time, for 4–6 weeks. At 6 months, the main result was how the subjects felt about HTC. Intentions, understanding, self-efficacy, and actions were measured as secondary outcomes. About 296 people were registered and randomly assigned. Around 9 were taken out because their adult permission forms were incomplete, leaving 287 people: 145 were randomly assigned to PlayTest! and 142 to the control condition.
Mixed between-within-groups ANOVAs were used to determine how the study variables affected the results. In the PlayTest! group, HTC views (P <.001), plans (P <.001), understanding (P <.001), and self-efficacy (P =.002) all got better over time. About 18 people who had access to HTC (N = 134; before COVID-19) and 26 people who did not have access to HTC (N = 261; during COVID-19) reported the same amount of HTC at six months (P =.289 for the first group and P =.074 for the second). PlayTest! changed important behavioral factors that led to HTC and could make HTC more common among teens in general.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X23004263
