Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Jan 10, 2020
Date Accepted: Mar 22, 2020
Safe City, a mobile game designed to promote children’s safety knowledge and behaviors: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Children have high levels of curiosity and eagerness to explore. This makes them more vulnerable to danger and hazards and thus have a higher risk of injury. Safety education such as teaching safety rules and tips is vital to prevent children from injuries. Although serious gaming has been recommended as a possible intervention to capture children’s attention and sustain their interest in learning, the use of serious game as an instructional tool in safety education remains largely underexplored.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to develop and test the effectiveness of Safe City, a mobile game designed as a tool for safety training, in order to improve safety knowledge and behaviors, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and psychosocial difficulties of Hong Kong school children aged 6 to 9 years.
Methods:
This study comprises the development of a city-based role-playing game Safe City where players are immersed as safety inspectors to prevent dangerous situations and promote safety behavior in a virtual city environment. The usability and acceptability tests will be conducted with children aged 6 to 9 years playing the game on a mobile phone. Adjustments will be made based on their feedbacks. A 4-week randomized controlled trial with children studying in Grade 4 to 6 in Hong Kong elementary schools will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the Safe City game. In this trial, 504 children will play Safe City, and 504 children will receive traditional instructional materials (electronic and printed safety information). Subjects’ safety knowledge and behaviors will be assessed by a questionnaire; HRQoL will be assessed by PedsQLTM Generic Core Scales; psychosocial difficulties will be assessed by Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. These questionnaires will be administered at 3 time points – before, 1 month, and 3 months after the intervention. Game usage statistics will also be reviewed.
Results:
This project was funded in September 2019. The design and development of the Safe City game is currently under way. Recruitment and data collection will begin from September 2020 and will continue up to March 1, 2021. Full analysis will be conducted after the end of the data collection period.
Conclusions:
If the Safe City game is found to be effective, it could be used to promote safety in children in the community and upgraded to incorporate more health-related topics to support education and empowerment for the larger public. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04096196; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04096196
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
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