August 04, 2008
Study Shows Playing Video Games Can Change Behavior, Biology
Video games are among the most popular entertainment media in the world. New, groundbreaking research published in this month's Pediatrics Journal shows that a specially designed video game can promote positive behaviors in young cancer patients that enhance the effectiveness of medical treatment. This research provides scientific evidence for a growing field of product development that taps into the positive potential of video games and other popular technology to improve human health.
The study evaluated the impact of playing Re-Mission(TM), a video game developed by HopeLab specifically for teens and young adults with cancer, on key behavioral and psychological factors associated with successful cancer treatment. In Re-Mission, players pilot a microscopic robot named Roxxi as she travels through the bodies of fictional cancer patients, blasting away cancer cells and battling the side-effects of cancer and cancer treatments. This study on Re-Mission is the largest randomized, controlled study of a video game intervention ever conducted, following 375 teens and young adults with cancer at 34 medical centers in the United States, Canada and Australia during three months of cancer treatment.
Analyses of study data suggest that patients' increased sense of control over cancer (self-efficacy) was a major driver of the game's effect on treatment utilization. To better understand how game play delivers the outcomes highlighted in the Pediatrics article, HopeLab conducted a study that utilizes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to analyze the brain regions that are activated when people play Re-Mission. Data from this research will be presented in Tokyo at the 10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine August 27 - 30, 2008.
Link to Pediatrics article
Link to Re-mission
Link to Congress of Behavioral Medicine
Link to previous AATP weblog story on Re-mission
Source: PRNewswire
Posted by rsk at August 4, 2008 11:48 AM