Digital Gaming for Nutritional Education: A Survey on Preferences, Motives, and Needs of Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Background Use of novel information and communication technologies are frequently discussed as promising tools to prevent and treat overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Objective This survey aims to describe the preferences, motives, and needs of children and adolescents regarding nutrition and digital games. Methods We conducted a survey in 6 secondary schools in the southern region of Germany using a 43-item questionnaire. Questions referred to preferences, motives, and needs of children and adolescents regarding nutrition and digital games. In addition, knowledge regarding nutrition was assessed with 4 questions. We collected self-reported sociodemographic and anthropometric data. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed using SPSS. Results In total, 293 children and adolescents participated in the study, with ages 12-18 years (137 girls, 46.8%), weight 30.0-120.0 (mean 60.2 [SD 13.2]) kg, and height 1.4-2.0 (mean 1.7 [SD 0.1]) m. A total of 5.5% (16/290) correctly answered the 4 questions regarding nutrition knowledge. Study participants acquired digital nutritional information primarily from the internet (166/291, 57.0%) and television (97/291, 33.3%), while school education (161/291, 55.3%) and parents or other adults (209/291, 71.8%) were the most relevant nondigital information sources. Most participants (242/283, 85.5%) reported that they regularly play digital games. More than half (144/236, 61.0%) stated that they play digital games on a daily basis on their smartphones or tablets, and almost 70% (151/282, 66.5%) reported playing digital games for ≤30 minutes without any interruption. One-half of respondents (144/280, 51.4%) also stated that they were interested in receiving information about nutrition while playing digital games. Conclusions This survey suggests that nutrition knowledge in children and adolescents might be deficient. Most children and adolescents play digital games and express interest in acquiring nutritional information during digital gameplay. A digital game with a focus on sound nutrition could be a potential educational tool for imparting nutrition knowledge and promoting healthier nutrition behaviors in children and adolescents.

Serious Games for Nutritional Education: Online Survey on Preferences, Motives, and Behaviors Among Young Adults at University

“…Since consideration of the target groups’ needs, interests, perspectives, and preferences is crucial for the development of effective health games [ 16 , 32 ], data about learning preferences were collected in this survey as well. The majority of participants stated wanting to learn about nutrition in a digital game by playing a quiz or by solving tasks, which is consistent with data among young adults [ 6 ] and the younger population [ 19 ].…”

“…This is in line with a focus group study showing that young adults (mean age 23.1 [SD 2.7] years) perceive mobile games as a reasonable nutritional education approach [ 6 ]. According to a previous survey, this interest is lower in children and adolescents [ 19 ]. In total, 0.4% of participants reported currently using digital games for obtaining nutritional information and 10.0% reported desiring them additionally.…”

“…Our data showed that adults mainly prefer a human being or fantasy character in digital games. The preference for fantasy contexts or fantasy characters in serious games has already been shown for children [ 13 , 19 ] and students [ 33 ]. Besides the motivational nature of fantasy [ 13 ], fantasy-related contents used in video games improved the transfer of nutritional knowledge in children significantly more than no fantasy contexts [ 34 ].…”

“…Wherever possible, a “don’t know,” “no answer applies,” or “other” option was provided. This questionnaire represents a revised version of a questionnaire developed by the same multidisciplinary research team and previously used in a survey among children and adolescents [ 19 ]. Age-specific modifications were made to ensure age adequacy.…”

“…Age-specific modifications were made to ensure age adequacy. Similar to our previous survey [ 19 ], this work is based on a selection of 20 (7 baseline characteristics, 2 nutrition, 11 gameplay) of the 47 questions. Questions not presented were mainly focused on technical issues for design and development of a game.…”