Diabetes educators enlist virtual reality
Program targets those between ages 18 and 28
By Kathy Hedberg of the Lewiston Morning Tribune
A group of high-risk young adults with diabetes has been learning to cope with their disease using a virtual reality program that connects them with health care providers and others with diabetes.
The Intrepid Healthy Lifestyle Hunter was created by faculty from the University of Idaho extension program, the school of family and consumer sciences, the college of art and architecture’s virtual technology and design, and the college of business and economics.
Its purpose, said SeAnne Safaii of the UI extention staff, is to reach people 18-28 years old who often fall through the cracks between pediatric and older adult health care related to diabetes.
“They tend to fall off the grid for medical providers and health care,” Safaii said.
People in that age group are “fairly headstrong (thinking) ‘I can do it myself.’ But they often don’t have medical insurance or they’re going off to college and get dropped off their parents’ insurance. So there are just a multitude of risk factors.”
(yeah, let’s not mention the crap food marketed to teens and college aged kids)
The program started two years ago and was funded through an $800,000 grant from the National Institute of Health. Safaii said the university is seeking an extension of the grand to further develop the program and even make it available to the general public
(as if we needed another video game. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg will buy it and integrate it into Farmville. You know, so you can harvest your healthy whole grains and make diabetic friendly bread!)
Ninety-seven participants were divided into two groups—one that received diabetes and lifestyle instruction face-to-face and the second group that went through the program using an avatar in a virtual world
(so…generally crappy information about managing blood sugar and choosing a diet that will cause an increase in blood sugar…in real life, where you have to be bothered to make an appointment, or in your apartment in front of your computer, without pants on)
“What we found is that they liked the concept of both education and discussion groups,” Safaii said. “The only thing we found that was an ‘aha!’ to us, the virtual group wanted to bond with each other face-to-face before going into that world.”
Safaii said she was surprised by the finding because “I thought that sort of anonymity would have been a beneficial factor.”
The program is being modified to allow participants to meet their health care providers and others in the group first through Facebook before venturing into the virtual world.
Although the program developers tried to replicate the virtual world as much as the real world, “it’s difficult because there’s more stimuli in the real world.
(you don’t say?) In the virtual world everything has to be a power-point presentation…Then wanted more interactive pieces. So they are developing a café where they can order food and play a game ordering food. We will also have a virtual kitchen where they can take their avatars in and learn how to prepare virtual food and recipes, then they can do it in real life.
(yeah…if only there were shows on that new-fangled television that did that. And if those recipes could be bound together and purchased in a single unit. Hmmm…)
Safaii said the future of the program is not yet clear, but it is hoped it can eventually be opened to all age groups that want to play and learn about living with diabetes.
“It’s a pretty fascinating world in there,” she said, referring to the virtual program. Participants are “changing their lifestyle and being held accountable. So this age group (is) so busy that they forget to eat, they forget to check their blood sugar, they crash and burn all the time.
“And they go out socializing and drinking—that you really can’t do when you have diabetes. So one of our classes teaches them skills on how to go out with your friends. If you drink alcohol, what do you do?”
(assuming one actually has real friends to go out with after spending all of one’s time on 2nd Life 8: The Paula Deen edition)
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This is being done right up the road from where I live. I applaud the use of current media to try and reach a demographic that is being missed when it comes to diabetic education. But then again, having worked with some diabetic educators and seeing what stuff they are instructed to push, I’m not so sure it’s not just going from the frying pan into the fire. I can’t imagine the diet and recipes they suggest in the game will be any different from the ADA diet, one that seems to do a great job of selling grains, but not so great of addressing the underlying cause of the diabetes. The article does not say whether this is for Type 1 or Type 2 diabetics, but it does mention that the program was created by people involved in consumer sciences and the college of business and econ. I don’t suppose they would be digging into the metabolic research so much as they would be attempting to apply their current methods of supporting corporate food-esque manufacturers to a digital format.
Also, at no time did I see any mention of instilling the importance of physical activity. And why would they? It would be downright boring, if not cognitively dissonant, to sit on your but in your WOW den and take your avatar to a gym to lift weights, or go for a run on a CG-levy by a CG river, complete with CG seagulls crapping on your CG head.
In some ways, this project serves as a vivid symptom of the problems in our approach to health. We embrace a medium that encourages, if not requires, sedentary behavior because it is the latest thing. But did anyone ask if it was the “best” thing? As a society we have a very teleologic misconception that “newer” somehow equals “better.” New drugs and new procedures for new symptoms of new diseases. And now, new ways to be
indoctrinated educated. Seems to me the common thread there is “new.” I keep hoping one day as a society we’ll have learned enough history and anthropology to start looking back to a time when we weren’t so sick, so fat, so sad, or suffering from a deficiency of medication.
The question, “what were you doing around the time that the illness manifested?” is commonly heard while the docs I work with evaluate patients. The answer almost always yields some valuable information. Yet somehow, the self-appointed medical providers of our society ask the question, they fail to hear the answer. Instead we look to the future, to more new things, each one adding a bit more time and distance between us and our healthier ancestors.
I still have some hope. TV shows and movies get re-made. Fashions from bygone eras become popular again. It is my hope that on a scale far grander than feathered hair and legwarmers, the lifestyle of our ancestors comes back into vogue before we flat go out of style."
