What is Women in Control 2.0?

Women in Control 2.0 is a research study at Boston Medical Center that promotes diabetes self-management using virtual world technology.

This research study is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

BACKGROUND

Patients need diabetes self-management (DSM) education and social support provided in collaboration with teams of clinicians. In practice, however, the actual delivery of this care model is fraught with challenges that limit the uptake of evidence-based care. With a shortage of healthcare providers and a growing prevalence of diabetes, there is great need for innovative approaches to DSM education and collaborative medical care to address disparities in DM outcomes through enhanced access and uptake of effective diabetes care. In order to participate as partners in healthcare, DM patients need self-management education and support provided in collaboration with teams of clinicians.

USING THE VIRTUAL WORLD

Women in Control 2.0 represents an extension of our prior work, a pilot study, Women in Control 1.0, which tested a virtual world DSM group education intervention using the CDC’s Power to Prevent curriculum with excellent results.

Our prior work suggests that, in addition to expanding access to DSM education, virtual world technology provides tailored, experiential learning opportunities and impacts multiple levels of health behavior influences (individual, peers, healthcare organization and community). These attributes increase knowledge transfer and lead to higher uptake of key health behaviors compared with face-to-face, didactic classroom learning.

We now aim to conduct a fully powered, randomized controlled trial to test the comparative effectiveness of delivering our innovative virtual world medical group visit intervention, Women in Control 2.0, compared to a face-to-face medical group visit format.

WHAT IS SECOND LIFE?

Second Life is an online virtual world. Users can explore the world, meet other users, create, shop, and participate in many other life-like situations.

WHY WOMEN?

Women are the heads of household. Many times, they make the household decisions about what foods will be served at each meal and the activities that they will do both individually and as a family.