Previously submitted to: JMIR Research Protocols (no longer under consideration since Sep 11, 2018)
Date Submitted: Nov 22, 2017
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Game Plan: A Web Application to Help Men Who Have Sex with Men Reduce their HIV Risk and Alcohol Use
Background:
Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk for HIV, and alcohol use is a major risk factor for HIV infection. Internet-facilitated brief interventions have been shown to reduce alcohol use and HIV-risk behavior in other at-risk populations, but have so far incorporated limited content and have not been tested among MSM.
Objective:
This manuscript describes Game Plan, an interactive, tablet-optimized web application designed to help heavy drinking, high-risk MSM consider reducing their alcohol use and sexual risk behavior.
Methods:
In this paper, we discuss the rationale, goals, and flow for each of Game Plan’s components, which were modelled after common in-person and web-based brief motivational interventions for these behaviors.
Results:
The app is unique in that it includes content urging users to reflect more profoundly on their current behavior, and if prepared to change, strengthen their commitment to doing so.
Conclusions:
Should ongoing research support its efficacy in facilitating behavior change, Game Plan could represent a wide-reaching and scalable tool that is well-suited for use in settings where delivering evidence-based, in-person interventions would be difficult or cost-prohibitive.
Citation
