Efficacy of It's Your Game-Tech: A Computer-Based Sexual Health Education Program for Middle School Youth

Abstract

Purpose Few computer-based HIV, sexually transmitted infection (STI), and pregnancy prevention programs are available, and even fewer target early adolescents. In this study, we tested the efficacy of It’s Your Game (IYG)-Tech, a completely computer-based, middle school sexual health education program. The primary hypothesis was that students who received IYG-Tech would significantly delay sexual initiation by ninth grade. Methods We evaluated IYG-Tech using a randomized, two-arm nested design among 19 schools in a large, urban school district in southeast Texas (20 schools were originally randomized). The target population was English-speaking eighth-grade students who were followed into the ninth grade. The final analytic sample included 1,374 students. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to test for differences in sexual initiation between intervention and control students, while adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, time between measures, and family structure. Results There was no significant difference in the delay of sexual activity or in any other sexual behavior between intervention and control students. However, there were significant positive between-group differences for psychosocial variables related to STI and condom knowledge, attitudes about abstinence, condom use self-efficacy, and perceived norms about sex. Post-hoc analyses conducted among intervention students revealed some significant associations: “full exposure” (completion of all 13 lessons) and “mid-exposure” (5–8 lessons) students were less likely than “low exposure” (1–4 lessons) students to initiate sex. Conclusions Collectively, our findings indicate that IYG-Tech impacts some determinants of sexual behavior, and that additional efficacy evaluation with full intervention exposure may be warranted.

Youth, Technology, and HIV: Recent Advances and Future Directions

“…Findings indicated that IYG-Tech impacted some determinants of sexual behavior (e.g. STI and condom knowledge, attitudes about abstinence, condom use self-efficacy) but did not impact sexual behaviors or sexual initiation (62). Unique aspects: school-based sample of middle school youth (mean age 14.3), predominantly minority (74% Hispanic (English speaking) and 17% African American).…”

Efectividad de las intervenciones educativas para la prevención del embarazo en la adolescencia

“…Se observa una mejora estadísticamente significativa en las actitudes hacia el uso del preservativo y la píldora anticonceptiva poscoital al mes y a los 6 meses de la intervención. (p < 0,05)PositivoGonzález et al 26 201369 adolescentes con edades entre 12 y 15 añosSe obtiene una mejora significativa posterior a la intervención para las conductas de riesgo de un embarazo en la adolescencia (p = 0,022) y para el nivel de conocimiento sobre sexualidad (p < 0,01)PositivoShegog et al 27 200714 adolescentes con edades entre 12 y 14 añosSe encuentran mejoras significativas en el conocimiento sobre sexualidad, conocimiento sobre enfermedades de transmisión sexual e importancia de un buen entorno de amistad (p < 0,05)PositivoPeskin et al 28 20151.374 adolescentes (768 grupo intervención y 606 grupo control), con edades entre 14 y 15 añosNo se encuentran diferencias significativas para las variables de iniciación sexual (p > 0,05), sin embargo, sí hay diferencias significativas para el nivel de conocimiento y uso del preservativo (p < 0,01), importancia de la abstinencia e importancia de los amigos (p < 0,05)PositivoAutorAñoMuestraPrincipales resultadosSentidoHernández Millán et al 29 2015180 adolescentes mujeres con edades entre 14 y 15 añosSe obtiene una mejora significativa posterior a la intervención en el nivel de conocimiento para conocimiento sobre las relaciones sexuales y sus riesgos (p < 0,05), para el nivel de conocimiento sobre enfermedades de transmisión sexual, métodos anticonceptivos (p < 0,01). Cuando se valora el nivel de conocimiento para la prevención del embarazo en la adolescencia se halla una mejora significativa (p < 0,01)EducativaTaylor et al 30 2014679 adolescentes con edades entre 13 y 16 añosSe obtiene que hay menos estudiantes que tienen actitudes positivas hacia el embarazo en la adolescencia (p < 0,01), mayor cantidad quiere abstenerse de relaciones hasta finalizar la escuela (p < 0,05), mayor comunicación hacia los padres (p < 0,05) y una mayor proporción de estudiantes usando anticonceptivos (p < 0,01)PositivoBonell et al 31 2013180 adolescentes en el grupo intervención y 180 en el control.…”

“…Cambio en el nivel de conocimiento: se seleccionaron 13 investigaciones17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, hallando todas una mejora significativa del nivel de conocimiento de los participantes.…”

Is Participatory Design Associated with the Effectiveness of Serious Digital Games for Healthy Lifestyle Promotion? A Meta-Analysis

“…Out of 22 studies, 4 (18%) involved users via interviews [65-68], 2 (9%) via classroom discussions [58,69], and 1 (5%) via a survey [70]. In 3 studies out of 22 (14%), a user technical advisory board was established [55,57,62], and in 3 studies (14%) reported in 2 papers, target group users were recruited as members of the design team [70,71]. …”

“…Users were recruited via purposive sampling in 12 out of 22 studies (55%) [51-54,58,59,61,65,68,69,71], via a self-selected convenience sample (eg, flyers) in 8 studies out of 22 (36%) [55-57,60,62,63,66,70], and/or via snowball sampling in 4 out of 22 studies (18%) [55,57,62,64]. For one study, no information could be obtained on sampling method [67].…”