A Digital Intervention to Prevent Initiation of Opioid Misuse in Adolescents in School-based Health Centers
Condition: Opioid Misuse
MeSH terms: Opioid-Related Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study's specific aims were to: develop a digital intervention as a prevention
      intervention through focus groups with 40 youth; pilot-test the developed digital
      intervention with 30 adolescents, using methods from the investigator's prior research;
      develop implementation strategies and partners through focus groups with 50 School Based
      Health Alliance affiliates and 30 adolescents from an Advisory Council.
    

Detailed description: 
      Most opioid misuse begins during adolescence and young adulthood. Adolescence is the time to
      intervene with prevention interventions (i.e., interventions focused on adolescents who have
      not yet misused opioids) in settings like school-based health centers (HCs), yet few
      interventions exist that prevent initiation of opioid misuse. "Serious videogame"
      interventions can improve health behaviors. They meet adolescents "where they are," and
      compared to standard interventions, they can reach large populations, with consistent
      fidelity, place limited demands on personnel/resources, and facilitate rapid sustainable
      distribution, all at a potentially lower cost.

      This study harnessed the power of videogame interventions and incorporated components of
      effective substance use prevention programs to develop an evidence-informed intervention to
      prevent the initiation of opioid misuse in adolescents. Building on our experience developing
      videogame interventions and in partnership with the national School-Based Health Alliance
      (SBHA), we developed and tested a new videogame intervention, PlaySmart.

      PlaySmart was built upon our PlayForward videogame intervention platform that has
      demonstrated efficacy in improving attitudes and knowledge related to risk behaviors. Through
      rigorous formative work and with input from adolescents, and our SBHA and game development
      partners, we created the PlaySmart videogame intervention.

      PlaySmart is designed to provide players with behavioral skills and knowledge through
      repetitive and engaging videogame play to target adolescent perception of risk of harm from
      initiating opioid misuse.

      The gap in the research on preventing initiation of opioid misuse in youth and in
      implementing prevention programs with good fidelity needs to be urgently addressed given the
      high prevalence of adolescent opioid misuse and overdose. This research has the potential to
      create a videogame intervention to prevent initiation of opioid misuse with far-reaching and
      sustained impact on adolescents.
    

Intervention name(s): PlaySmart; PlaySmart Storyline; Play Smart Mini-Game
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participants played the developed PlaySmart game over the course of a week.; Participants played through one PlaySmart Storyline during one 1-1.5 hour session.; Participants played through all levels of the PlaySmart Risk Sense mini-game during one 1-1.5 hour session.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention