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- Creators: Byrne, Jared
One approach to support such personalization is via self-experimentation using single-case designs. ‘Hack Your Health’ is a tool that guides individuals through an 18-day self-experiment to test if an intervention they choose (e.g., meditation, gratitude journaling) improves their own psychological well-being (e.g., stress, happiness), whether it fits in their routine, and whether they enjoy it.
The purpose of this work was to conduct a formative evaluation of Hack Your Health to examine user burden, adherence, and to evaluate its usefulness in supporting decision-making about a health intervention. A mixed-methods approach was used, and two versions of the tool were tested via two waves of participants (Wave 1, N=20; Wave 2, N=8). Participants completed their self-experiments and provided feedback via follow-up surveys (n=26) and interviews (n=20).
Findings indicated that the tool had high usability and low burden overall. Average survey completion rate was 91%, and compliance to protocol was 72%. Overall, participants found the experience useful to test if their chosen intervention helped them. However, there were discrepancies between participants’ intuition about intervention effect and results from analyses. Participants often relied on intuition/lived experience over results for decision-making. This suggested that the usefulness of Hack Your Health in its current form might be through the structure, accountability, and means for self-reflection it provided rather than the specific experimental design/results. Additionally, situations where performing interventions within a rigorous/restrictive experimental set-up may not be appropriate (e.g., when goal is to assess intervention enjoyment) were uncovered. Plausible design implications include: longer experimental and phase durations, accounting for non-compliance, missingness, and proximal/acute effects, and exploring strategies to complement quantitative data with participants’ lived experiences with interventions to effectively support decision-making. Future work should explore ways to balance scientific rigor with participants’ needs for such decision-making.
Eleven women (46.9±7.0 years) not participating in regular exercise and self-reporting insomnia completed a graded maximal exercise test followed by a crossover trial of three randomly assigned conditions separated by a 1-week washout. Participants performed moderate-intensity [MIC, 30 minutes, 65-70% maximum heart rate (HRmax)] or high-intensity (HIT, 20 minutes, 1-minute bouts at 90-95% HRmax alternating with 1-minute active recovery) treadmill walking or a no-exercise control (NEC) on two consecutive weekdays 4-6 hours prior to typical bed time. A dual-function wrist-worn accelerometer/temperature monitor recorded movement and skin temperature from which sleep-onset latency (SOL), sleep maintenance, sleep efficiency, total sleep time (TST), and peripheral skin temperature changes were calculated. Participants self-reported sleep outcomes weekly, enjoyment of exercise the morning after HIT and MIC, and exercise intensity preference upon completing all conditions. Mixed models analysis of variance examined differences between and within conditions controlling for demographic characteristics and habitual physical activity.
HIT resulted in up to a 90-minute TST increase on night four (448 minutes, 95% CI 422.4-474.2) compared to nights one-three. MIC nights three (43.5 minutes, 95% CI 30.4-56.6) and four (42.1 minutes 95% CI 29.0-55.2) showed nearly a 30-minute SOL worsening compared to nights one-two. No other actigraphy-measured sleep parameters differenced within or between conditions. Self-reported sleep outcomes, peripheral skin temperature change, and exercise enjoyment between conditions were similar (p>0.05). More participants preferred lower (n=3) to higher (n=1) intensity activities.
Early evening high-intensity and moderate-intensity exercise had no effect on sleep outcomes compared to a control in non-exercising adults reporting sleep complaints. Sleep benefits from HIT may require exercise on successive days. Participants indicated partiality for lower intensity exercise. More information on timing and mode of physical activity to improve sleep in this population is warranted.
Purpose: This qualitative research aimed to create a developmentally and gender-appropriate game-based intervention to promote Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in adolescents. <br/>Background: Ranking as the most common sexually transmitted infection, about 80 million Americans are currently infected by HPV, and it continues to increase with an estimated 14 million new cases yearly. Certain types of HPV have been significantly associated with cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers in women; penile cancers in men; and oropharyngeal and anal cancers in both men and women. Despite HPV vaccination being one of the most effective methods in preventing HPV-associated cancers, vaccination rates remain suboptimal in adolescents. Game-based intervention, a novel medium that is popular with adolescents, has been shown to be effective in promoting health behaviors. <br/>Methods: Sample/Sampling. We used purposeful sampling to recruit eight adolescent-parent dyads (N = 16) which represented both sexes (4 boys, 4 girls) and different racial/ethnic groups (White, Black, Latino, Asian American) in the United States. The inclusion criteria for the dyads were: (1) a child aged 11-14 years and his/her parent, and (2) ability to speak, read, write, and understand English. Procedure. After eligible families consented to their participation, semi-structured interviews (each 60-90 minutes long) were conducted with each adolescent-parent dyad in a quiet and private room. Each dyad received $50 to acknowledge their time and effort. Measure. The interview questions consisted of two parts: (a) those related to game design, functioning, and feasibility of implementation; (b) those related to theoretical constructs of the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Data analysis. The interviews were audio-recorded with permission and manually transcribed into textual data. Two researchers confirmed the verbatim transcription. We use pre-developed codes to identify each participant’s responses and organize data and develop themes based on the HBM and TPB constructs. After the analysis was completed, three researchers in the team reviewed the results and discussed the discrepancies until a consensus is reached.<br/>Results: The findings suggested that the most common motivating factors for adolescents’ HPV vaccination were its effectiveness, benefits, convenience, affordable cost, reminders via text, and recommendation by a health care provider. Regarding the content included in the HPV game, participants suggested including information about who and when should receive the vaccine, what is HPV and the vaccination, what are the consequences if infected, the side effects of the vaccine, and where to receive the vaccine. The preferred game design elements were: 15 minutes long, stories about fighting or action, option to choose characters/avatars, motivating factors (i.e., rewards such as allowing users to advance levels and receive coins when correctly answering questions), use of a portable electronic device (e.g., tablet) to deliver the education. Participants were open to multiplayer function which assists in a facilitated conversation about HPV and the HPV vaccine. Overall, the participants concluded enthusiasm for an interactive yet engaging game-based intervention to learn about the HPV vaccine with the goal to increase HPV vaccination in adolescents. <br/>Implications: Tailored educational games have the potential to decrease the stigma of HPV and HPV vaccination, increasing communication between the adolescent, parent, and healthcare provider, as well as increase the overall HPV vaccination rate.
Through the use of Arizona State University’s Founders Lab, our group of four Barrett, the Honors College Students completed a research thesis regarding the interest of college students in a sleep light technology product. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pioneered a sleep light technology with the ability to regulate melatonin production and circadian rhythm, resulting in an improvement of sleep quality. The technology was originally invented for astronauts to improve their sleep while in space on a spacecraft. Utilizing this technology, our group performed extensive market research with the intention of determining if college students would be interested in purchasing a consumer product incorporating the sleep light technology. We created a brand called Rhythm Illumination and began by building a website and brand guide. Next, we utilized Google Forms to generate responses to a variety of questions regarding current sleep habits, current sleep problems, and whether or not there was interest in a product like this. After determining that college students have room for sleep quality improvement and there is interest in this kind of product, we worked towards our goal of gaining traction for the product. We decided to utilize both Google Analytics results and a Zoom event’s attendance as proof of interest in our product. Google Analytics revealed over one hundred unique users on our Rhythm Illumination website. We also had eleven event attendees. Between these two tools, our team was able to conclude that there is interest among college students for a consumer product utilizing NASA’s sleep light technology.
The purpose of this thesis study was to market a favorable solution to reduce stress levels and improve the quality of sleep for young adults by using a piece of technology developed by NASA. This technology was a lighting system initially designed to help astronauts regulate their circadian rhythms in space, and our goal was to find a suitable market for this type of product. Our team wanted to focus on college students because they often suffer from high anxiety and stress levels, which affects their overall productiveness in study rooms and dorms. After conducting research and interviewing students on the ASU campus, we wanted to market a solution that incorporates the same technology, but is also able to adjust lighting intensity and color. Taking this solution, our group setup demonstration rooms in Noble Library to collect data from students who would be interested in seeing more of this product on campus. Additionally, a Facebook advertisement campaign was launched to promote our website and gain any other feedback. Ultimately, these two methods of outreach proved to be a huge success, and there was a significant amount of interest in this product, validating that there is a potential market.