Game titles and Social Networking May Help Prevent HIV in At-Risk Gay Men


Photo: Jonathan Kitchen/Getty Images

Long afterwards the peak on the American

HELPS

crisis,

HIV

continues to be a major problem among homosexual guys, who will be identified as having the disease at a rate “more than 40 occasions that ladies and most 44 times regarding additional men,” as a
present report
in

Diary of Medical Web Research

explains. The report, a survey of numerous tech-driven techniques to lessen the rate of

HIV

in this at-risk population, factors toward the new generation of (hopefully) successful


treatments.

There are a few fascinating choices in the pipeline, since the study’s
news release details
:


One interactive site, Sexpulse, designed by medical researchers and pc boffins to a target males exactly who look for intimate lovers online, successfully decreased high-risk intimate behaviors. Another site, Continue The Good Work! (

KIU

), used video gaming in lowering rates of exposed anal intercourse. A 3rd effort, a downloadable game, helped mitigate pity noticed by some teenage boys with sex with males, even though the decrease in high-risk intimate behavior wasn’t statistically


significant.

The task is less about

what

message to deliver, since the fundamentals of exactly how

HIV

and

AIDS

work were rather well-publicized now, than ideas on how to deliver it, since just detailing that a behavior is hazardous is sometimes not sufficient to change


it.

It is critical to mention this particular doesn’t just apply at gay males; individuals take part in all sorts of unsafe habits, from substance abuse to overeating to smoking cigarettes to using inactive lifestyles, despite having been informed they may be harmful. This is why the question of getting men and women to generate healthiest decisions is an enormous part of worry for public-health researchers — developing a fruitful conduct input can be a very difficult thing to do. (we will end up being posting a lengthier, a lot more detailed article on this subject


quickly.)

A few of the most useful methods wisely target social support systems â€” peer pressure tends to impact united states in many ways additional appeals typically do not. This was borne out in the


review:


On social networking sites like fb and Twitter, well-known individuals can distribute

HIV

-prevention communications to their buddies and followers. The posting of information about

HIV

evaluating join the dating app via this source on a social network did actually increase needs for

HIV

evaluating packages, one study discovered. Another learn learned that utilizing view leaders to share

HIV

-prevention information via social networks may boost evaluation rates and bolster condom use during rectal intercourse with partners discovered


on line.


It is a very peculiar quirk of personal reason that packing the same kind of info in a slightly various means may cause far better effects. Luckily for us, professionals are starting to capitalize on


this.