Enter Now: Create an Obesity Prevention Game

February 08, 2019 • By Office on Women's Health

Join the Office on Women's Health in helping women and girls reach and maintain a healthy weight. Enter our Shape of Health: An Obesity Prevention Game challenge by creating a video game focused on obesity prevention or weight control for women or girls.

In the United States, 2 out of every 3 women have overweight or obesity. Among girls 2 to 19 years old, the 2015–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that about 1 in 3 girls has either overweight or obesity. Now is the time to give women and girls the tools they need to lead healthier lives, as extra weight can lead to conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers.

Through our Shape of Health: An Obesity Prevention Game challenge, you have the opportunity to create an engaging web- or mobile-based game that helps women or girls build healthier exercise and eating habits to prevent obesity. If you have an idea, we want to hear from you! All participants must submit their entries by 11:59 p.m. ET on April 7. Visit challenge.gov to learn more about prizes, the stages of the competition, and submission details and requirements. We can't wait to see your creative ideas!

Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation and Technology to Address Loneliness & social isolation (MENTAL) Health Innovation Challenge

Today, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health launched the MENTAL Health Challenge to combat the social isolation and loneliness that older adults, people with disabilities and veterans often experience. A total of $750,000 in prizes will be awarded for development of an easy-to-use online system that offers recommendations for programs, activities and resources that can help users connect to others and engage in the community, based on their individual needs, interests and abilities. The winning system will be announced and demonstrated in January 2021 at CES , an annual trade show produced by the Consumer Technology Association. It ultimately will become the centerpiece of a national public awareness campaign.

Social disconnection has enormous health consequences. Social isolation has been found to be as harmful to a person's health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and people who are socially isolated or lonely face higher risk of hospitalization; depression, anxiety and suicide; heart failure and stroke; dementia; and even premature death. Not surprisingly, a recent analysis found that Medicare spends an additional $6.7 billion every year on enrollees who are socially isolated.

For more information on this important challenge, visit the HHS press release or Challenge.gov