Developing and piloting a serious game to educate children about over‐the‐counter medication safety

Abraham, Olufunmilola; Feathers, Alison; Grieve, Lorin; Babichenko, Dmitriy

doi:10.1111/jphs.12292

Cited by 13 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…• Games for antiretroviral therapy (ART) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) adherence: Viral Combat, Adherence Warrior, Epic Allies, and Battle Viro were developed to promote adherence to ART and PrEP [26][27][28][29][30] • Game for cancer treatment medication adherence: Re-Mission [31] • Game for diabetes medication education and adherence: L'Affaire Birmann [32,33] • Game for asthma medication education: Wee Willie Wheezie [34] • Games for microbiology and antibiotic education: Microbe Quest and e-Bug Junior and Senior [35][36][37] • Game for prescription drug abuse education: CSI Web Adventures [38] • Game for over-the-counter (OTC) medication safety: Alchemy Knights [39]…”

Section: Intention Of the Serious Gamementioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Serious Games That Incorporate Medication Use for Patients: Systematic Literature Review

Abraham¹,

LeMay²,

Bittner³

et al. 2020

JMIR Serious Games

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Background The United States spends more than US $100 billion annually on the impact of medication misuse. Serious games are effective and innovative digital tools for educating patients about positive health behaviors. There are limited systematic reviews that examine the prevalence of serious games that incorporate medication use. Objective This systematic review aimed to identify (1) serious games intended to educate patients about medication adherence, education, and safety; (2) types of theoretical frameworks used to develop serious games for medication use; and (3) sampling frames for evaluating serious games on medication use. Methods PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched for literature about medication-based serious games for patients. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed for article selection. Results Using PRISMA guidelines, 953 publications and 749 unique titles were identified from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. A total of 16 studies featuring 12 unique serious games were included with components of medication adherence, education, and safety, published from 2003 to 2019. Of the 12 games included, eight serious games were tested in adolescents, three games were tested in young adults, and one game was tested in adults. Most studies (n=11) used small sample sizes to test the usability of serious games. Theoretical frameworks identified in the 12 serious games included information, motivation, and behavior theory; social cognitive theory; precede-proceed model; middle-range theory of chronic illness; adult learning theory; experiential learning theory; and the theory of reasoned action. Existing reviews explore serious games focused on the management of specific disease states, such as HIV, diabetes, and asthma, and on the positive impact of serious game education in each respective disease state. Although other reviews target broad topics such as health care gamification and serious games to educate health care workers, no reviews focus solely on medication use. Serious games were mainly focused on improving adherence, whereas medication safety was not widely explored. Little is known about the efficacy and usability of medication-focused serious games often because of small and nonrepresentative sample sizes, which limit the generalizability of existing studies. Conclusions Limited studies exist on serious games for health that incorporate medication use. The findings from these studies focus on developing and testing serious games that teach patients about medication use and safety. Many of these studies do not apply a theoretical framework in the design and assessment of these games. In the future, serious game effectiveness could be improved by increasing study sample size and diversity of study participants, so that the results are generalizable to broader populations. Serious games should describe the extent of theoretical framework incorporated into game design and evaluate success by testing the player’s retention of learning objectives.

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Section: Intention Of the Serious Gamementioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Serious Games That Incorporate Medication Use for Patients: Systematic Literature Review

Abraham¹,

LeMay²,

Bittner³

et al. 2020

JMIR Serious Games

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Teaching medical knowledge through the form of games has been found to be as effective as traditional text-based teaching methods [12]. In addition to teaching accurate information in a guided and context-based manner, incorporating knowledge pertaining to food and drug safety into video games has been proven to effectively raise the level of relevant knowledge among youngsters [13,14]. Moreover, teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation through serious games has also been shown to result in a higher retention rate of knowledge and skills [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Gameful Experience Affects Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding COVID-19 Among the Taiwanese Public: Cross-sectional Study

Peng¹,

Bai²

2021

JMIR Serious Games

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Background In 2019, with the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the globe, public health systems worldwide faced severe challenges. Amid the pandemic, one simulation game, Plague Inc., has received substantial attention. This game has indirectly drawn greater public attention to public health issues by simulating pathogen transmission and disease symptoms. Objective Against this backdrop, this research investigates whether the gameful experience of Plague Inc. has indirectly affected public knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding COVID-19. Methods An online survey was conducted through social networking services in Taiwan from May 6-28, 2020. Results A total of 486 subjects participated in this study, of which 276 (56.8%) had played Plague Inc. This study had several findings. First, participants who had played Plague Inc. demonstrated higher levels of knowledge (P=.03, median 7, IQR 7-8) and attitudes (P=.007, median 8, IQR 7-8) than participants who had not played Plague Inc. (knowledge: median 7, IQR 6-8; attitude: median 7, IQR 6-8). Second, there was a significant correlation between creative thinking (ρ=.127, P=.04) and dominance (ρ=.122, P=.04) in attitude. Finally, there was a significant correlation between creative thinking (ρ=.126, P<.001) and dominance (ρ=.119, P=.049) in practice. Conclusions Serious games highlighting the theme of pathogen transmission may enhance public knowledge and attitudes regarding COVID-19. Furthermore, the creative thinking and dominance involved in gameful experiences may act as critical factors in public attitudes and practices regarding COVID-19. These findings should be further verified through experimental research in the future.

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“…Serious games are computer or video games designed for the primary purpose of educating users beyond entertainment purposes (eg, educational games, exercise video games, language learning games) [19][20][21][22]. Studies have demonstrated that serious games are effective in sharing information as well as changing attitudes and behaviors in a variety of health domains, such as safe sex [23], healthy eating [24][25][26], cancer [27,28], smoking [29,30], exercise [31][32][33], asthma management [34,35], and over-the-counter medication [36].…”

Section: Serious Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Serious Games for Antismoking Health Campaigns: Experimental Study

et al. 2020

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Background Serious games for health have been gaining in popularity among scholars and practitioners. However, there remain a few questions to be addressed. Objective This study tests the effects of a serious game and fear appeals on smoking-related outcomes. More specifically, this research aims to understand how serious games function as a more effective vehicle for a health campaign than a traditional medium, such as a print-based pamphlet. Further, while serious games utilize a variety of persuasive strategies in the game’s content, it is not clear whether fear appeals, which are widely used persuasive-message strategies for health, can be an effective strategy in serious games. Thus, we are testing the effect of fear appeals in a serious game. Methods We created a computer game and a print brochure to educate participants about the risks of smoking. More specifically, a flash-based single-player game was developed in which players were asked to avoid cigarettes in the gameplay context. We also developed an online brochure based on existing smoking-related brochures at a university health center; antismoking messages on the computer game and in the brochure were comparable. Then, an experiment using a 2 (media type: game vs. print) x 2 (fearful image: fear vs. no-fear) between-subjects design was conducted. The study recruitment was announced to undergraduate students enrolled in a large, public Midwestern university in the United States. After a screening test, a total of 72 smokers, who reported smoking in the past 30 days, participated in the experiment. Results Overall, gameplay, when compared to print-based pamphlets, had greater impacts on attitudes toward smoking and the intention to quit smoking. Further, the game’s persuasive effects were especially pronounced when messages contained fear appeals. When fearful images were presented, participants in the game condition reported significantly more negative attitudes toward social smoking than those in the print condition [F(1,67)=7.28; P=.009; ηp2=0.10]. However, in the no-fear condition, there was no significant difference between the conditions [F(1,67)=0.25; P=.620]. Similarly, the intention to quit smoking [F(1,67)=4.64; P=.035; ηp2=0.07] and susceptibility [F(1,67)=6.92; P=.011; ηp2=0.09] were also significantly different between the conditions, but only when fear appeals were used. Conclusions This study extends fear appeal research by investigating the effects of different media types. It offers empirical evidence that a serious game can be an effective vehicle for fear appeals.

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Developing and piloting a serious game to educate children about over‐the‐counter medication safety

Cited by 13 publications

References 43 publications

Investigating Serious Games That Incorporate Medication Use for Patients: Systematic Literature Review

Investigating Serious Games That Incorporate Medication Use for Patients: Systematic Literature Review

How Gameful Experience Affects Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding COVID-19 Among the Taiwanese Public: Cross-sectional Study

Using Serious Games for Antismoking Health Campaigns: Experimental Study

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