A presentation as a follow-up to my Doctor of Public Health Dissertation Thesis. The presentation took place at the 19th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning.

1. OBESITY AWARENESS
THROUGH VIRTUAL
SIMULATIONS
By: Margaret Czart, DrPH

2. OVERVIEW
Introduction
 Literature Review
 Conclusion
 Future Work


3. INTRODUCTION

The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate how
virtual simulations:





Educate the public
Raise awareness to the general public
Promote health (diet and exercise)
Determine causes of obesity
Determine how one may change their lifestyle through
the use of motivational interviewing
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4. LITERATURE REVIEW:
Obesity

Lifestyle changes are an important key factor in improving
an individual’s health.






Balancing Calories
Healthy Eating
Food Pyramid and Food Labels
Food Serving
Causes and Consequences
Obesity is a label for ranges of weight that are greater than
what is generally considered healthy for a given height
(BMI).
An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered
overweight.
 An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

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5. LITERATURE REVIEW:OBESITY
 According
to the American Heart Association
among Americans age 20 and older, 49% are
overweight or obese (BMI of 25.0 kg/m2 and
higher):


25% men.
24% women.
 Of
these, 25% are obese (BMI of 30.0 kg/m2 and
higher):
12% men.
 13% women

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6. LITERATURE REVIEW:OBESITY
 According
to Statistics Canada 39% are
overweight or obese (BMI of 25.0 kg/m2 and
higher):


22% men
16% women
 Of
these,18.4% are obese (BMI of 30.0
kg/m2 and higher):


19% men
18% women
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7. LITERATURE REVIEW:OBESITY

Causes of Obesity:
Unhealthy eating
 Lack of physical activity
 Genetics
 Other medications side-effect


Health consequences include:





Heart Disease
Cancer
Hypertension
Type 2 Diabetes
Sleep Apnea
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8. LITERATURE REVIEW:
Motivational Interviewing

A directive, patient-centered counseling style and
psychotherapy that assists patients to discover and
resolve their ambivalence to behavior change
(Treasure, 2004; Miller & Rollnick, pp.33-42).

The transtheoretical model, stages of change
model, is believed to be the foundation of
motivational interviewing.
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9. LITERATURE REVIEW (Cont’d):
Motivational Interviewing

Principles
Express Empathy
 Developing Discrepancy (current vs. desired behavior)
 Rolling with Resistance (acknowledging the patient’s
perspective )
 Supporting Self-efficacy


Skills
Open-ended Questions
 Reflective Listening
 Affirmation
 Summarization

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10. LITERATURE REVIEW:
Simulations

The terms “Simulations” and “Role Play” are used
interchangeably by health educators

Simulation is defined as


“A technique in which the exercise moderator creates a
situation and assigns roles where individuals tend to play
themselves, allowing them to experience their own reactions in
a specified setting.”
Role Play is defined as:

“An unstructured situation in which an individual’s behavior is
not predetermined to fit the roles they are assigned, in
comparison to simulations that are believed to be more
structured with specific rules.”

11. LITERATURE REVIEW (Cont’d):
SIMULATIONS

Currently technology assists in
developing game based
simulations in the form of:

Webpage based games


Typically for K-12 students.
Virtual World Simulations
Second Life
 Open Simulator
 Cloud Party
 Kitley
 Unity 3D


12. LITERATURE REVIEW:
OpenSimulator Virtual World

OpenSimulator is an open source internet-based
graphical interface, sometimes referred to as a
metaverse or multi-user virtual environment (MUVE).

Individuals represented by avatars (3D human figure).

Allows individuals to experience situations not always
available in real life.

The virtual environment allows students to interact with
other individuals and objects through experimental and
active learning.
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13. TYPES OF INTERACTIVE SIMULATIONS

Interactive simulations may take place is various
categories which include:
Interactive menu – useful in learning about food nutrition
choices.
 Interactive books – provide instructions to activities as well as
other useful resources using notecards and textures.
 Interactive games - useful in learning theories and how the
various components of theories are linked together.
 Interactive text chat – This assists in learning to communicate
and gather data such as surveys and general feedback

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14. EXAMPLE: FOOD NUTIRION ACTIVITY
Learn about the nutritional information of some basic restaurant foods
through a menu selection.
- Selection by item
and size.
- Activity allows to
collect nutritional
information of
various typical
“fast foods” in a
form of a
notecard.
- Multiple
selections allow
an individual to
make healthy
food choices
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15. EXAMPLE: ACTIVITY AT THE PARK
Learn about to make outdoor activities at the park accessible to
everyone.
- Tour of the
park presents
methods of
building an
accessible
park to all
individuals.
- Additional
Information
provided in a
form of a
textbook and
notecard for
future
reference. 15

16. EXAMPLE: LEARNING THEORY
THROUGH GAMES
Learning various theories sometimes requires a visual
representation in order to understand the broader perspective.
Example:
• Understanding the
transition from
Contemplation to
Action in behavior
change.
• Through
notecards and
objects the
participant is able
to take notes for
future reference.
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17. CONCLUSION

Through simulations individuals may:



Become more aware of the health obesity
problem.
Learn on how to deal with unhealthy eating
habits and increase physical activity.
Simulations become an individuals visual library to
health information.
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18. ADDITONAL CREDITS

Technical Support:


Virtual World aka: WhiteStar Magic
Content Support:
Virtual World aka: WhiteStar Magic
 Virtual World aka: Thoria Millgrove

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19. THANK YOU!
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Email: MARGARET.CZART@AmericanSentinel.edu
Phone: 303-557-0596
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