Data@TAMU

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Browsing Data@TAMU by Funding Agency "DHHS-NIH-National Cancer Institute"

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    Research Project
    HPV and Cancer mHealth Prevention Education for HIV Positive Women Pilot Study
    Health And Kinesiology; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/425; DHHS-NIH-National Cancer Institute
    DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The candidate is a research assistant professor with academic training in health promotion, education, and behavior, as well as postdoctoral training in HIV/AIDS prevention, health disparities, and health services research. She also has data management expertise and clinical immunology experience. The candidate has completed two pilot studies that examined HPV infection and cervical cancer prevention knowledge, beliefs and screening behaviors among women living with HIV (WLH). The candidate is seeking additional training needed to develop and implement effective cancer health (including mHealth) communication and community navigation strategies to improve WLH's timely use of cancer screening, diagnostic and treatment services and procedures. The candidate's long-term goal is to obtain extramural research funding for her independent research program focusing on the prevention and control of HPV-mediated cancers among WLH over the next 5-10 years. Promotion to associate professor (tenure- or research-track) is an intermediate goal that the candidate is striving to attain within the next five years. A combination of formal didactic trainig and experiential learning opportunities will be used to acquire cancer prevention and control research skills in the following areas: cancer health (including mHealth) communication, cancer epidemiology, HPV-mediated cancer biology, community navigation, advanced epidemiological research skills (e.g., social epidemiology, n- of-1 research study designs, and, multilevel modeling). The candidate will use the cancer prevention and control research and health communication knowledge and skills acquired through the proposed career development award to conduct formative research needed to inform intervention development in which she will examine cancer health information seeking and sharing among WLH as well as their non-clinical HIV service providers (e.g., HIV/STI risk reduction counselors). Non-clinical HIV service providers will be included because, in addition to the fact that these individuals are already promoting safe sexual practices among WLH, they are also able to reach marginalized groups of WLH such as those who are homeless. This includes sheltered and unsheltered homeless WLH. The candidate's mentors and co-mentors have scientific expertise and community-based participatory research experience that will increase the likelihood of the proposed specific aims being successfully completed. The candidate will first examine HPV-mediated cancer prevention knowledge, beliefs and behaviors, as well as cancer health communication seeking and sharing behaviors (including the use of technology to find health information) (Aim 1). These formative research data will then be used to inform the development (Aim 2) and subsequent pilot testing and evaluation (Aim 3) of an HPV- mediated cancer prevention mHealth education intervention aimed at training WLH who already serve as peer leaders and non-clinical HIV service providers to use mHealth tools and community navigation strategies to disseminate HPV-mediated cancer prevention education. As community navigators, these individuals will use cancer health (including mHealth) communication and community navigation strategies to increase awareness about HPV-mediated cancer risk. This will include promoting cancer risk reducing behaviors such as safe sexual practices and the timely use of recommended cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment services and procedures). Recall and reminder messages will be sent for screening and follow-up cancer care appointments. User-defined social support messages will also be sent to WLH who may be encountering access to cancer care barriers. The candidate will disseminate the scientific research findings to local, regional, national, and international audiences via presentations that she will give at scientific conferences and annual meetings as well as peer-reviewed publications that she will produce. Most relevant to the candidate's long-term goal of attaining research independence is increasing her number of peer-reviewed publications from her current publication rate of approximately three per year to four or more produced annually by the end of the 5-year training period and the submission of at least one grant proposal (e.g., R01-level funding) by the end of the 5-year training period. The proposed career development/training and research activities will enable the candidate to realize her long-term career goal of becoming an independent cancer researcher with expertise in using cancer health communication, community navigation, and mHealth technologies to address health system failures encountered by vulnerable, medically-underserved WLH along the cancer care continuum. Continued mentoring and opportunities for team science research collaborations will facilitate the candidate's successful progression to being an independent cancer researcher. WLH and non-clinical HIV service providers will be recruited from Ryan White funded clinics and AIDS-service organizations located in urban and rural geographical areas of South Carolina that represent a microcosm of disparities in HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other chronic illness that disproportionately burden medically underserved minority populations. Addressing health system failures that occur along the cancer care continuum that result in missed opportunities to prevent, detect, diagnose and treat HPV-mediated cancers will help to reduce the burden of cancer incidence and mortality among this high cancer risk, vulnerable group of WLH. The proposed HPV-mediated cancer mHealth prevention education intervention will be conducted in a community-based setting and builds upon an existing academic-community partnership between the candidate and a local AIDS-service organization. The candidate has a supportive, resource-intensive scientific environment for her cancer research training.
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    Research Project
    Virtual Transportation as a Strategy to Reduce Resistance to Cigarette and e-Cigarette Graphic Health Warnings in Adolescents and Young Adults
    Department Of Communication; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/257; DHHS-NIH-National Cancer Institute
    Most adult smokers initiate tobacco use before age 18, with considerable increases in initiation and the highest rates of use observed between the ages of 18 and 29. Although conventional cigarette use is declining somewhat, use of e-cigarettes that can promote future nicotine addiction is on the rise, particularly for youth. These statistics speak to the need to identify new methods of delivering messages designed to reduce both cigarette and e-cigarette (e-cig) use to younger Americans (i.e., adolescents and young adults). One promising approach involves delivery of graphic health warnings that communicate the risks associated with these products. The proposed research explores delivery of graphic health warnings from within virtual gaming environments. Previous research indicates that videogames can be used effectively to deliver smoking- prevention messages, but past efforts have focused on videogames designed around health-education themes (what are called “serious” games). With surveys indicating that 97% of adolescents and 80% of young adults play videogames for entertainment, use of entertainment videogames as a tool for delivering graphic warnings has tremendous potential to influence youth cigarette and e-cig rates. However, before such an approach can be pursued, researchers need to better understand health communication dynamics in computer-mediated, virtual gaming worlds. The current project addresses this need and tests the viability of The Virtual Transportation Model of Health Communication. This model posits that, as gamers become psychologically immersed (or “transported”) into virtual reality, their tendency to resist persuasive messages they encounter in these worlds is disrupted. The model further posits that such disruption will typically be strongest among individuals who are most likely to resist or reject “real-world” interventions. Support for predictions comes from pilot research conducted by our research team. In this research, graphic health warnings against alcohol- impaired driving and cigarette smoking were embedded in background scenes of entertaining, interactive 3D virtual gaming worlds. Such messages were shown to reduce willingness to engage in these behaviors in the future, particularly among higher-risk individuals who reported feeling psychologically “transported” during game play. The proposed research will build on this work by testing the viability of videogame-based interventions. In Phase 1 (Years 1 & 2) we will refine two existing videogames and develop two new ones while simultaneously empirically evaluating the best methods of delivering in-game health communications and the mechanisms by which transportation heightens in-game influence. In Phase 2 (Years 3 & 4), we will conduct randomized field trials of game-based interventions with two groups, a probability sample of adolescents (13 – 18) and an at-risk sample of young adults (18 – 24). In Phase 3 (Year 5) we will aggregate data across studies to create helath campaign recommendations and to launch an interactive gaming server that will permit broad distribution of empirically validated games, for use by independent health communication researchers
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    Research Project
    Virtual Transportation as a Strategy to Reduce Resistance to Cigarette and e-Cigarette Graphic Health Warnings in Adolescents and Young Adults
    Department Of Communication; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/257; DHHS-NIH-National Cancer Institute
    Most adult smokers initiate tobacco use before age 18, with considerable increases in initiation and the highest rates of use observed between the ages of 18 and 29. Although conventional cigarette use is declining somewhat, use of e-cigarettes that can promote future nicotine addiction is on the rise, particularly for youth. These statistics speak to the need to identify new methods of delivering messages designed to reduce both cigarette and e-cigarette (e-cig) use to younger Americans (i.e., adolescents and young adults). One promising approach involves delivery of graphic health warnings that communicate the risks associated with these products. The proposed research explores delivery of graphic health warnings from within virtual gaming environments. Previous research indicates that videogames can be used effectively to deliver smoking- prevention messages, but past efforts have focused on videogames designed around health-education themes (what are called “serious” games). With surveys indicating that 97% of adolescents and 80% of young adults play videogames for entertainment, use of entertainment videogames as a tool for delivering graphic warnings has tremendous potential to influence youth cigarette and e-cig rates. However, before such an approach can be pursued, researchers need to better understand health communication dynamics in computer-mediated, virtual gaming worlds. The current project addresses this need and tests the viability of The Virtual Transportation Model of Health Communication. This model posits that, as gamers become psychologically immersed (or “transported”) into virtual reality, their tendency to resist persuasive messages they encounter in these worlds is disrupted. The model further posits that such disruption will typically be strongest among individuals who are most likely to resist or reject “real-world” interventions. Support for predictions comes from pilot research conducted by our research team. In this research, graphic health warnings against alcohol- impaired driving and cigarette smoking were embedded in background scenes of entertaining, interactive 3D virtual gaming worlds. Such messages were shown to reduce willingness to engage in these behaviors in the future, particularly among higher-risk individuals who reported feeling psychologically “transported” during game play. The proposed research will build on this work by testing the viability of videogame-based interventions. In Phase 1 (Years 1 & 2) we will refine two existing videogames and develop two new ones while simultaneously empirically evaluating the best methods of delivering in-game health communications and the mechanisms by which transportation heightens in-game influence. In Phase 2 (Years 3 & 4), we will conduct randomized field trials of game-based interventions with two groups, a probability sample of adolescents (13 – 18) and an at-risk sample of young adults (18 – 24). In Phase 3 (Year 5) we will aggregate data across studies to create helath campaign recommendations and to launch an interactive gaming server that will permit broad distribution of empirically validated games, for use by independent health communication researchers.