Previously submitted to: JMIR Serious Games (no longer under consideration since May 23, 2024)
Date Submitted: Aug 2, 2023
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Can Serious Games educate Children in oral health knowledge? A Qualitative Controlled Pilot Study
ABSTRACT
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate a Serious Game developed for oral prophylaxis of children concerning its impact on the user’s state of knowledge, individual responsibility, attitude towards oral hygiene, and player experience in a randomized controlled study through qualitative analysis. Material and
Methods:
Thirty school children were randomly assigned to play either a dental Serious Game or a control game. Before and after playing, all children were interviewed with a predefined questionnaire. After the transcription of the interviews, qualitative content analysis was performed using a category system.
Results:
Both games were evaluated very positively, while only the experimental group showed a noticeable increase in knowledge regarding caries and the use of fluorides. The individual level of game-difficulty had major influence on the evaluation and winning had positive effects on the self-efficacy of the children.
Conclusions:
The investigated dental Serious Game was able to improve oral health- and oral hygiene related self-efficacy while being highly attractive to children. Serious Games may be cost-effective tools for oral prophylaxis in children. Further studies with quantitative designs examining clinical effects are needed.
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