HopeLab presents Re-Mission Outcomes Study Results at Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting
HopeLab presented the results of the Re-Mission Outcomes Study in a poster session at the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco on March 23, 2006.
Re-Mission is a video game developed for adolescents and young adults with cancer. HopeLab researchers worked with leading video game developers and animators, cancer experts, cell biologists, psychologists, and young people with cancer themselves to create the game. Re-Mission is a challenging, 3D “shooter” with 20 levels that takes the player on a journey through the bodies of young patients with different kinds of cancer. Players control a nanobot named Roxxi that destroys cancer cells, battles bacterial infections, and manages realistic, life-threatening side effects associated with cancer.
HopeLab conducted randomized, controlled trial to test the effect of Re-Mission on treatment adherence, cancer-related knowledge, self-efficacy, and quality of life among adolescents and young adults with cancer. 375 male and female cancer patients aged 13-29 were enrolled at 34 medical centers in the US, Canada and Australia, and randomly assigned to receive PCs pre-loaded with a popular video game only or that same control video game plus Re-Mission. Study results indicate that playing Re-Mission produced significant increases in quality of life, self-efficacy, and cancer-related knowledge for adolescents and young adults with cancer. In addition, young people who played Re-Mission maintained higher blood levels of chemotherapy and showed higher rates of antibiotic utilization than those in the control group, both results suggesting that Re-Mission helps patients adhere to cancer therapy regimens.
The SBM Annual Meeting http://www.sbm.org/meeting/2006/ represents the largest annual scientific conference devoted exclusively to behavioral medicine. The SBM Annual Meeting typically draws close to 1,300 attendees and includes presentations from a variety of perspectives, including basic laboratory research, health promotion, disease prevention, risk factor identification and modification, disease progression, adjustment and adaptation to physical disorders, and rehabilitation.
