Abraham Olufunmilola, Szela Lisa, Khan Mahnoor, Geddam Amrita
Social & Administrative Sciences Division, School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
JMIR Serious Games. 2022 Jan 24;10(1):e31172. doi: 10.2196/31172.
Cancer in the United States is a leading cause of mortality. Educating adolescents about cancer risks can improve awareness and introduce healthy lifestyle habits. Public health efforts have made significant progress in easing the burden of cancer through the promotion of early screening and healthy lifestyle advocacy. However, there are limited interventions that educate the adolescent population about cancer prevention. Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of serious games (SGs) to teach adolescents about healthy lifestyle choices, but few research efforts have examined the utility of using SGs to educate youth specifically on cancer prevention.
This study aimed to investigate middle school students' preferences for the use of SGs for cancer prevention education. The study also characterized the students' perceptions of desired game design features for a cancer prevention SG.
Focus groups were held to allow adolescents to review a game playbook and discuss gaming behaviors and preferences for an SG for cancer education. The game playbook was developed based on "Cancer, Clear & Simple," a curriculum intended to educate individuals about cancer, prevention, self-care, screening, and detection. In the game, the player learns that they have cancer and is given the opportunity to go back in time to reduce their cancer risk. A focus group discussion guide was developed and consisted of questions about aspects of the playbook and the participants' gaming experience. The participants were eligible if they were 12 to 14 years old, could speak and understand English, and had parents who could read English or Spanish. Each focus group consisted of 5 to 10 persons. The focus groups were audio recorded and professionally transcribed; they were then analyzed content-wise and thematically by 2 study team members. Intercoder reliability (kappa coefficient) among the coders was reported as 0.97. The prevalent codes were identified and categorized into themes and subthemes.
A total of 18 focus groups were held with 139 participants from a Wisconsin middle school. Most participants had at least "some" gaming experience. Three major themes were identified, which were educational video games, game content, and purpose of game. The participants preferred customizable characters and realistic story lines that allowed players to make choices that affect the characters' outcomes. Middle school students also preferred SGs over other educational methods such as lectures, books, videos, and websites. The participants desired SGs to be available across multiple platforms and suggested the use of SGs for cancer education in their school.
Older children and adolescents consider SGs to be an entertaining tool to learn about cancer prevention and risk factors. Their design preferences should be considered to create a cancer education SG that is acceptable and engaging for youth.
癌症是美国主要的死亡原因之一。对青少年进行癌症风险教育可以提高他们的认识，并引导他们养成健康的生活习惯。公共卫生工作通过推广早期筛查和倡导健康的生活方式，在减轻癌症负担方面取得了显著进展。然而，针对青少年群体进行癌症预防教育的干预措施有限。以往的研究表明，严肃游戏（SGs）在教导青少年做出健康生活方式选择方面具有有效性，但很少有研究探讨使用严肃游戏专门对青少年进行癌症预防教育的效用。
本研究旨在调查中学生对使用严肃游戏进行癌症预防教育的偏好。该研究还描述了学生对癌症预防严肃游戏所需设计特征的看法。
举行焦点小组讨论，让青少年阅读一份游戏手册，并讨论关于一款癌症教育严肃游戏的游戏行为和偏好。该游戏手册是基于“癌症，清晰又简单”这一课程开发的，该课程旨在教育个人关于癌症、预防、自我护理、筛查和检测等方面。在游戏中，玩家得知自己患了癌症，并有机会回到过去以降低患癌风险。制定了一份焦点小组讨论指南，其中包含有关手册内容和参与者游戏体验的问题。参与者的年龄在12至14岁之间，能说并理解英语，且其父母能阅读英语或西班牙语则符合条件。每个焦点小组由5至10人组成。焦点小组讨论进行了录音并由专业人员转录；然后由2名研究团队成员进行内容和主题分析。编码员之间的编码者信度（kappa系数）报告为0.97。确定了普遍出现的编码，并将其分类为主题和子主题。
对来自威斯康星州一所中学的139名参与者进行了总共18个焦点小组讨论。大多数参与者至少有“一些”游戏经验。确定了三个主要主题，即教育视频游戏、游戏内容和游戏目的。参与者更喜欢可定制的角色和现实的故事情节，这些情节能让玩家做出影响角色结局的选择。中学生也更喜欢严肃游戏，而不是讲座、书籍、视频和网站等其他教育方法。参与者希望严肃游戏能在多个平台上使用，并建议在他们的学校使用严肃游戏进行癌症教育。
年龄较大的儿童和青少年认为严肃游戏是一种有趣的工具，可以用来了解癌症预防和风险因素。在创建一款对青少年来说可接受且有吸引力的癌症教育严肃游戏时，应考虑他们的设计偏好。
