Texas Obesity Research Rebecc...

Name of Project: The Texas Obesity Research Center in Second Life

Avatar and/or name of primary applicant: Sirena Felisimo / Rebecca E. Lee, PhD

Project Narrative Questions (200 words or less per question)

1. Summarize your idea and vision for this project. How does it utilize the unique features of a virtual world?

The goal of this project is to extend the RL mission, goals and activities of the Texas Obesity Research Center (TORC) of the University of Houston (UH) into Second Life (SL). Obesity affects one in three Americans and has become a global epidemic in all industrialized societies (cf. http://www.iuns.org/features/obesity/tabfig.htm#Figure%201:), eclipsing worldwide hunger and many infectious diseases. The obesity epidemic is primarily attributed to lifestyle and environmental changes that have occurred in the industrialized world in the last 3 decades, and is largely preventable with early and broad based intervention efforts. Second Life is global, an ideal setting to reach international audiences who are real life (RL) residents of industrialized communities at high risk for obesity. SL provides a unique opportunity to increase knowledge, social support and behavioral skills necessary to reduce or prevent obesity with much broader reach than traditional face to face intervention strategies. SL residents enjoy RL anonymity, reducing risk of judgment or persecution experienced in RL. Further, virtual communities provide the same sense of community as RL communities, fostering sense of membership, influence, needs fulfillment, and shared emotional connection that is vital in order to prevent and reduce the epidemic burden of obesity.

2. Who is your intended audience and who will participate directly?

In industrialized societies, between 50% and 75% of the population weigh in at overweight or obese health status. Thus, the majority of SL residents, although apparently healthy avatars, are likely at real risk in RL. Nearly all residents may be interested to participate. Public health approaches aim to reach as many of the population as possible in order to both prevent and reduce obesity.

We now have an active health survey ongoing in SL, to begin to measure systematically (1) RL physical activity, dietary habits and weight status, (2) correspondence between RL body shape and size and SL avatar, and (3) the extent and nature of virtual sense of community. We will use this survey to introduce the TORC in SL to at least 500 residents, our minimum survey participation goal. Residents who agree to be contacted again after the survey will begin our base for reaching residents. To recruit more residents, we will advertise and promote the TORC using word of mouth, note card distribution, and advertisement in the search engine. We aim to reach a minimum of 2,000 residents with this initial TORC demonstration project.

3. What is the scope of your endeavor and what would you most like to accomplish?

This project will extend the TORC from RL to SL by increasing awareness, knowledge, skills and support for healthful living to reduce the burden of obesity. We aim to begin to reach not only a US national population of residents, but also an international population by developing Spanish and French language resources based on our existing research collaborations in RL in Canada, Mexico and Switzerland. To kick off our effort, we will begin with a multi country Healthy Weight Challenge. Residents who visit the TORC can affiliate with any one of our four collaborative countries to log their health habits and weight status. The country that has the most improvement over time will be declared the winner.

We will adapt games and activities used in our RL interventions to improve health knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to prevent and reduce obesity. Accurate scores on games and participation in activities will be incentivized with Lindens to increase participation. We will provide group membership for people who are interested in learning about healthy habits and obesity prevention and control to promote social connectedness around healthful living. The information from this project will be used for future grant applications to continue to expand initial efforts.

4. What *public good* benefits do you see created through your proposed endeavor?

Reducing obesity translates to a greatly reduced public health burden. Other data suggest that it might also reduce the burden to the planet via reducing the needed food supply and costs associated with feeding and transporting overweight and obese individuals who eat and weigh more than lean individuals. Overweight and obesity are associated with numerous chronic health illnesses, including coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes, four out of the 10 leading causes of death identified by the U.S. Department for Health and Human Performance, and echoed by international bodies such as the World Health Organization (Cf., http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/consequences.htm; http://www.iotf.org/database/index.asp). In the USA, roughly 300,000 deaths and $120 billion in medical expenses are attributed to obesity and obesity-related conditions annually. Over half of these expenses are paid for by Medicare and Medicaid, with each U.S. taxpayer responsible for about $200 per year for obesity-related medical costs. From an employer’s perspective, medical costs are 77% higher for obese employees than healthy employees, costing employers over $8,000 per person per year. (Cf., http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/economic_consequences.htm) Reducing obesity is an international health priority, and SL provides a portal to an international community of people who are at risk promising broad based health improvement.

5. At the end of this challenge, what "real world" impact will you measure as your basis for success?

Measures for success will involve survey instruments, sim monitoring, and Challenge points.

Information and Skill Acquisition. Residents will complete brief surveys to determine increases in knowledge, skills and attitudes about healthful lifestyle choices, weights, and risks and benefits associated with these.

Behavioral Monitoring. Residents who participate in the TORC Challenge will be able to complete dietary habits and physical activity logs as both a measure of success and to accumulate Challenge points.

Body Mass Index. Residents who participate will complete online surveys of height and weight at the beginning and completion of their online participation in the TORC experience.

Visits to the Sim and TORC. All residents who visit the site will be logged to compute number of unique visitors and number of repeat visitors.

TORC Healthy Weight Challenge. Residents may affiliate with either USA, Mexico, Canada or Switzerland sites to compete with the other country teams.

Data will be coded, analyzed and summarized. Findings will be presented not only to funders and RL audiences, but will also be made available in SL. Findings will be used as part of future applications to continue development of the activities of the TORC in both SL and RL.

6. Do you, or your team, have a solid track record and positive success stories in Second Life or other virtual spaces?

The Texas Obesity Research Center is located in the Department of Health and Human Performance at the University of Houston, in Houston Texas, in RL. In SL, the Texas Obesity Research Center has been located on the HHP island sim since 2007. Drs. Layne (Earnest Thorne), Lee (Sirena Felisimo) and McFarlin (Micah Davies) (University of Houston) have been active residents of SL for over 9 months and are in the process of migrating online and face-to-face existing courses to the SL site. Dr. Lee is the PI of an ongoing study in SL to investigate the relationships among virtual sense of community, body image and health habits among residents. Over the past three years, Dr. McFarlin has taught in excess of 1800 students using hybrid and fully online techniques, and has published a report which found that hybrid instructional was associated with superior enhancement of learning and retention of key concepts compared to traditional classroom instruction. Dr. Loomis (Wilfrid Laurier University; University of Geneva) has been involved in various capacities (spanning programming, operations, systems analyst and consulting) with information technology (IT) since 1978 and is a leading expert in psychological sense of community. Although less experienced virtually, Drs. Horn and O’Connor have RL skills necessary to conducting research regardless of venue. Dr. Horn is expert in retention of learners and Dr. O’Connor is a research methodologist.

Budget

Include a list of in-world resources required to complete the Network Culture Project SL and the Public Good Community Challenge within a three-month timeframe, including land. Be specific about how you would spend the L$100,000 per month for the three months award for this project.

Upon the beginning of funding, materials will be translated using existing resources and protocols. Many of the materials already exist in Spanish. The first month Lindens will be used to pay for the uploading and testing of materials in SL in consultation with in world programmers. A small amount of Lindens will be used to advertise the project in world during the last days of Week 4. Beginning in Week 5, the program will be officially unveiled and deployed. The bulk of Lindens in the second and third months will be used to pay residents for survey compensation and participation incentives. This is routinely done in RL research to stimulate recruitment and enhance retention, and many market research companies already use this strategy in world. A small amount of Lindens will be paid to in world programmers to monitor and fix the system should problems arise.

Month 1

L$25,000 Advertising and promotion

L$75,000 Programming and modification

Month 2

L$25,000 Sim and program monitoring

L$75,000 Participation incentives and compensation

Survey completion, completing informational games.

Month 3

L$25,000 Sim and program monitoring

L$75,000 Participation incentives and compensation

Time Line for Project Completion

Include target dates for project milestones between July 16th through October 16, 2008 with clear benchmarks to measure success.

Timeline for the 13 weeks between July 16 and October 16, 2008

Activity

Weeks

Secure Protection for Human Research Participant Approval

Translation of materials

Upload materials to SL

Testing of materials and protocols in SL

Deploy project in world to residents

Resident in world participation

Data download and cleaning

Data analyses and summary

In world Awards Ceremony

The timeline demonstrates the plan for activities to be conducted during the funding period. Upon notice of award, the research team will begin modifying existing real world materials for use in SL and application will be made the University of Houston Committee for the Protection of Human Research Participants. USA governmental regulations and University of Houston policies and procedures mandate that all research conducted on humans is required to be approved by the institutional review board prior to beginning research. In month 1, programming and modifications will be made on the existing TORC web site. Near the end of month 1 the TORC will be heavily promoted in world. Months 2 and 3 will be chiefly devoted to conducting the project in world. Data downloading and cleaning will be conducted as well, and we expect to conduct analyses and summary of results in the last two weeks of the project. In the last week, residents will be invited to participate in the Awards Ceremony to announce the winner of the TORC Healthy Weight Challenge and unveil the findings from the project.

Project Team

List team members, including any additional sponsors, partners, funders or allies to be associated with this project. Include any applicable information you would like to have considered, such as brief bios of participants, existing in-world locations or groups, existing URLs related to this project, or photos, videos, or other supplemental materials.

Rebecca E. Lee, PhD (AKA Sirena Felisimo)

Dr. Rebecca Lee is a psychologist with a dual emphasis in behavioral medicine and community psychology and an associate professor of Nutrition in the Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP) at UH. Dr. Lee has published in numerous peer reviewed journals on ecologic models, epidemiologic analyses and intervention studies that incorporate environmental, social and individual determinants of physical activity, dietary habits and obesity. Her work combines theory and techniques drawn from behavioral medicine, community psychology, geography, policy science, social ecology and social marketing. Dr. Lee has been funded by the American Heart Association, Kaiser Permanente, National Cancer Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Walmart to examine the relationships among obesogenic neighborhoods, social networks and individual health behaviors and outcomes in populations of color. Dr. Lee serves as a Charter Member of the Community Level Health Promotion Study Section at the National Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Lee is the director of The Texas Obesity Research Center housed at the University of Houston to promote research, education and community service employing translational approaches in obesity prevention and control. Dr. Lee has won the University of Houston, College of Education Award for Research Excellence twice along with other accolades and awards for her work. Dr. Lee teaches the popular undergraduate elective, The Obesity Epidemic, and several courses in the Obesity Studies Core of the Kinesiology Doctorate offered in the Department of Health and Human Performance. Dr. Lee serves as the Policy Committee Chair for the Houston Mayor’s Wellness Council. In addition to English Dr. Lee also speaks and writes in Spanish, and speaks conversational French.

More information about Dr. Lee: http://www.coe.uh.edu/database/facultytemplate.cfm?id=323

More information about Texas Obesity Research Center: http://grants.hhp.coe.uh.edu/obesity/

Catherine Horn, PhD

Dr. Catherine Horn holds a doctorate in Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation, and specializes in retaining hard to reach and underrepresented populations in education. Dr. Horn is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Studies at UH. Dr. Horn links theory and practice to understand and enhance educational opportunities along with investigating the role and utility of standardized testing in education.

More about Dr. Horn: http://www.coe.uh.edu/database/facultytemplate.cfm?id=300

Charles Layne, PhD (Earnest Thorn)

Dr. Chuck Layne is an exercise physiologist and professor and chair of the Department of Health and Human Performance. He directs the Laboratory of Integrated Physiology (LIP) and is a RL member of the Texas Obesity Research Center. Dr. Layne’s experience draws on years working in the NASA and space flight complex and now serving as the guiding force of a new era of education in health, kinesiology and nutrition. Dr. Layne created the HHP island sim in SL that can be found at HHP at UH (153, 219, 23). The sim is maintained by HHP as we continue to develop our distance education and TORC research efforts. Dr. Layne is a member of the Texas Obesity Research Center at UH.

More about Dr. Layne: http://grants.hhp.coe.uh.edu/layne/

More about the LIP: http://grants.hhp.coe.uh.edu/lip/

More about HHP: http://hhp.uh.edu/

Colleen Loomis, PhD

Dr. Loomis is a community psychologist and an associate professor of psychology at the Wilfred Laurier University in Canada as well as serving as Associate Director of the Laurier Centre for Community Service-Learning. During the year 2008 to 2009, Dr. Loomis will be visiting faculty at the University of Geneve in Switzerland. Dr. Loomis combines her previous career in information technology together with the highest scholarship to produce innovative, cutting-edge programs to promote healthful living. She has developed virtual communities for special populations, including mkPlanet, a virtual community where missionary kids and adult missionary kids interact to share experiences, information, and provide support. The community began with two individuals in 2004 designing the website and has grown to over 1,400 virtual and interactive community members as of May 2008. In addition to English Dr. Loomis also speaks and writes in French.

More about Dr. Loomis: http://www.wlu.ca/homepage.php?grp_id=250&ct_id=173&f_id=1

More about MK Planet: http://mkplanet.com/

Brian McFarlin, PhD (Micah Davies)

Dr. McFarlin holds a doctorate in exercise physiology with advanced training in nutrition and is an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance. His research focuses on immune system functioning in response to exercise, dietary habits and obesity, and he is on the executive board of the Texas Obesity Research Center. Dr. McFarlin holds numerous awards particularly in the area of innovation in teaching using media, internet and online approaches. Dr. McFarlin is also a member of the Laboratory of Integrated Physiology.

More about Dr. McFarlin: http://grants.hhp.coe.uh.edu/brian/index.htm

Daniel O’Connor, PhD

Dr. O’Connor holds a doctorate in Kinesiology with advanced training in research methodology. Dr. O’Connor combines a previous career in private industry with his current position in academia as assistant professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance at UH. Dr. O’Connor specializes in individual health outcomes in response to intervention and is a member of the Laboratory of Integrated Physiology.

More about Dr. O’Connor: http://www.coe.uh.edu/database/facultytemplate.cfm?id=406

I have read and filled out this complete proposal to the best of our team's ability and certify that we have read the Network Culture Project Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge agreements below.

SIGNATURE: _____________________________________ DATE: ____________

Please send your responses to networkculture@gmail.com by June 1, 2008.

Second Life and the Public Good: A Community Challenge

Project Team Agreements:

By applying for the Network Culture Project Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge you agree to allow public use of machinima, photos, video, quotes and collateral research material collected by the USC Network Culture Project team. Secondary materials may be printed, used in presentations or in public outreach for future projects and campaigns and shared rights to secondary materials are given when applying for this grant. USC Network Culture Project, as the final determining judge for grant awards, may decide to provide additional awards to worthy groups and encourages all communities and avatars working toward positive, real world social action to apply and be considered for this grant.

• All proposals are due by June 1st at 5PM (PST) to networkculture@gmail.com. Proposals received after that time will not be considered.

• A panel of virtual leaders will choose at least 5 semi-finalists to be eligible for Community Vote.

• Each semi-finalist team will have two weeks from June 16th to June 30th to campaign for their project among Second Life members.

• Total grant award will be at least L$100,000 per month for three months, starting July 16th through October 16, 2008.

• Winning projects will be featured in virtual reality sessions at the State of Play virtual world conference.