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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games

Date Submitted: Apr 30, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 30, 2018 - Jun 25, 2018
Date Accepted: Aug 28, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Young People’s Knowledge of Antibiotics and Vaccinations and Increasing This Knowledge Through Gaming: Mixed-Methods Study Using e-Bug

Eley CV, Young VL, Hayes CV, Verlander NQ, McNulty CAM

Young People’s Knowledge of Antibiotics and Vaccinations and Increasing This Knowledge Through Gaming: Mixed-Methods Study Using e-Bug

JMIR Serious Games 2019;7(1):e10915

DOI: 10.2196/10915

PMID: 30707096

PMCID: 6376338

Young People’s Knowledge About Antibiotics and Vaccinations and Increasing It Through Gaming: Mixed-Methods Study Using e-Bug

  • Charlotte Victoria Eley; 
  • Vicki Louise Young; 
  • Catherine Victoria Hayes; 
  • Neville Q Verlander; 
  • Cliodna Ann Miriam McNulty

ABSTRACT

Background:

e-Bug, led by Public Health England, educates young people about important topics: microbes, infection prevention, and antibiotics. Body Busters and Stop the Spread are 2 new e-Bug educational games.

Objective:

This study aimed to determine students’ baseline knowledge, views on the games, and knowledge improvement.

Methods:

Students in 5 UK educational provisions were observed playing 2 e-Bug games. Before and after knowledge and evaluation questionnaires were completed, and student focus groups were conducted.

Results:

A total of 123 junior and 350 senior students completed the questionnaires. Vaccination baseline knowledge was high. Knowledge increased significantly about antibiotic use, appropriate sneezing behaviors, and vaccinations. In total, 26 student focus groups were conducted. Body Busters was engaging and enjoyable, whereas Stop the Spread was fast-paced and challenging but increased vaccination and health behavior intentions.

Conclusions:

e-Bug games are an effective learning tool for students to enhance knowledge about microbes, infection prevention, and antibiotics. Game-suggested improvements should help increase enjoyment.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Eley CV, Young VL, Hayes CV, Verlander NQ, McNulty CAM

Young People’s Knowledge of Antibiotics and Vaccinations and Increasing This Knowledge Through Gaming: Mixed-Methods Study Using e-Bug

JMIR Serious Games 2019;7(1):e10915

DOI: 10.2196/10915

PMID: 30707096

PMCID: 6376338

Per the author's request the PDF is not available.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.