The SPRinG app, designed in partnership with community groups and people who have experienced problem gambling, is a low-barrier, self-management journaling and tracking tool that helps users understand their gambling patterns and urges. It’s a research tool to gain insights into this population, and explore the feasibility of addressing problem gambling with a digital solution.
Problem gambling is associated with a range of health concerns, including substance use, mental illness, chronic illness and disability. Research suggests that prevalence of problem gambling among people experiencing homelessness is up to 58 per cent, nine times higher than the general population.
Dr. Flora Matheson is a Research Scientist, Dr. Arthur McLuhan is a Senior Research Associate, and Madison Ford is a Research Coordinator at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions. Dr. Alireza Sadeghian is a professor at the Department of Computer Science at Toronto Metropolitan University. They spoke about leading the SPRinG project, the questions they’re hoping to answer and why they’re passionate about this work.
Q: How does the SPRinG app work?
Ford: The app centres around users journaling about their gambling urges and gambling events, and the circumstances surrounding those urges and events. All of this information is collected through the app, allowing users to learn about their behaviour. For example, users can track their location during a gambling urge, how much money they’ve lost in gambling events for the past week, and how this compares to previous weeks. All of these variables help users identify triggers and high-risk situations and develop strategies for managing them.
When users are experiencing an urge, the app offers them four options to deter them from gambling: 1) engage in a distraction, 2) contact a friend, 3) engage in alternate activities and 4) contact a 24/7 crisis line.
Q: How did you develop the app?
Matheson: It started with initial funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health to develop a prototype about five years ago, and now we’re at the recruitment stage. We’ve received subsequent funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research through the Collaborative Health Research Projects Initiative.
At MAP, we have a research program that looks at the connections between problem gambling, homelessness and poverty.
In Ontario, there are not enough gambling support services for those who need them. These services are often siloed, and many have long wait lists. Our community partners wanted a tool that could bridge these services, and could be accessed outside of normal 9-5 business hours, when a gambling event is likely to occur. This could be at 5 p.m., when a friend calls asking to go to the casino, or on the weekends, when support services might be closed. The app is always there in users’ back pockets, whenever they need it.
Une application conçue par des chercheurs de St. Michael’s offre un soutien 24 heures sur 24, 7 jours sur 7, aux personnes ayant des problèmes de jeu
Conçue en partenariat avec des groupes communautaires et des personnes ayant connu des problèmes de jeu, l’application SPRinG est un outil convivial d’autogestion qui permet aux utilisateurs de suivre et de consigner des données pour mieux comprendre leurs habitudes et leurs envies de jeu. Il s’agit d’un outil de recherche servant à mieux connaître cette population et à explorer la faisabilité d’une solution numérique pour lutter contre la dépendance au jeu.
La dépendance au jeu est associée à toute une série de problèmes de santé tels que la toxicomanie, les maladies mentales, les maladies chroniques et l’invalidité. Des études suggèrent que la prévalence des problèmes de jeu chez les personnes en situation d’itinérance s’élève à 58 %, ce qui est neuf fois plus élevé que dans la population générale.
Flora Matheson est chercheuse, Arthur McLuhan est associé de recherche principal et Madison Ford est coordonnatrice de la recherche au Centre MAP pour des solutions de santé urbaine. Alireza Sadeghian est professeur au département d’informatique de l’Université métropolitaine de Toronto. Ils nous parlent de la direction du projet SPRinG, des questions auxquelles ils espèrent répondre et des raisons pour lesquelles ce travail les passionne.