Play a Social Media Game for Diabetes!

The developed world has made its epidemiological transition from infectious to chronic diseases, but the developing world is not far behind- today, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory conditions are the major cause of death and disability world-wide. This is indeed a significant concern.

I light of this, the Joslin Diabetes Center, affiliated with the Harvard Medical School, has been working since 1898 to ensure that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and to offer real hope and progress towards diabetes prevention and cure. Just recently though, they launched an innovative social media intervention, HealthSeeker, that may become the prototype for social media efforts to prevent and treat chronic conditions.

HealthSeeker is a game on Facebook that allows players to make specific lifestyle changes that focus on healthy eating. While the game is available to everyone, it specifically allows players with diabetes to make informed lifestyle decisions through channels that compliment their daily use of social media. The game utilizes the players own Facebook friends as sources of support and inspiration, by allowing players to publicly receive experience and award points every time they meet 'lifestyle goals' such as eating more healthfully, achieving or maintaining a healthy weight, improving one's diabetes control or lowering cardiovascular risk factors. This sort of motivation allows people to take simple, everyday steps towards meeting their health goals, and has so far proven to be very successful.

Watch this video to learn more, add the application on your own Facebook account and play!