Arshad Muhammad Furqan, Abbas Ibrahim, Porcu Francesca, Ricci Alessandro, Gaglio Gabriella, Brianti Emanuele, Carta Silvia, Cavallo Lia, Tamponi Claudia, Gabrielli Simona, González Camila, Cantacessi Cinzia, Scala Antonio, Varcasia Antonio
Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
Parasitology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2025 May 28;19(5):e0013072. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0013072. eCollection 2025 May.
Parasitic diseases represent a substantial public health challenge worldwide. Traditional educational strategies have often fallen short in driving sustained behavioral shifts that are nonetheless essential for reducing the burden of these diseases. Edutainment, a blend of education and entertainment, is the synthesis of pedagogical content with recreational frameworks, leveraging narrative and visual appeal to elevate the learning experience through enriched experiences, aligning with the principles of "warm cognition". Human cognitive processes, including attention, learning and memory, are influenced by emotions. As a result, emotional experiences are remembered vividly and accurately, with great resilience over time. Several edutainment approaches have been successfully utilized to inspire positive behavioral changes against soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), schistosomiasis, echinococcosis, and other diseases. This scoping review delves into several documented approaches with sustainable positive post-intervention outcomes. Approaches such as animated cartoons, gamification, songs, videos, and music, mobile health applications, hands-on experience, posters, comics and educational booklets, puppet shows, toy animals, cardboard and plastic-coated drawings, drawing activities and competitions, group discussions, illustrated booklets and questionnaires have yielded statistically significant improvements in participant's knowledge related to parasitic diseases (up to 60% increase in knowledge scores), alongside notable reductions in risks of parasite transmission and infection prevalence. These improvements highlight the potential of edutainment to enhance community awareness, promote long-term behavioral changes, and ultimately contribute to reducing spread of disease. Moreover, artificial intelligence (AI) can be integrated into edutainment approaches to meet the growing demand for personalized and effective learning methods. We argue that such AI-driven edutainment can underpin sustainable progress in the control of parasitic diseases.
寄生虫病是全球公共卫生面临的重大挑战。传统的教育策略往往难以推动持续的行为转变，而这种转变对于减轻这些疾病的负担至关重要。寓教于乐，即教育与娱乐的融合，是将教学内容与娱乐框架相结合，利用叙事和视觉吸引力，通过丰富的体验提升学习体验，符合“温暖认知”的原则。人类的认知过程，包括注意力、学习和记忆，都会受到情绪的影响。因此，情感体验能被生动而准确地记住，并且随着时间推移具有很强的恢复力。几种寓教于乐的方法已成功用于激发针对土壤传播的蠕虫病、血吸虫病、棘球蚴病和其他疾病的积极行为改变。本范围综述深入探讨了几种有记录的、干预后产生可持续积极结果的方法。诸如动画卡通、游戏化、歌曲、视频、音乐、移动健康应用程序、实践体验、海报、漫画和教育手册、木偶戏、玩具动物、硬纸板和塑料涂层画、绘画活动和比赛、小组讨论、图文并茂的手册和问卷等方法，在参与者与寄生虫病相关的知识方面取得了具有统计学意义的改善（知识得分提高了60%），同时寄生虫传播风险和感染率显著降低。这些改善凸显了寓教于乐在提高社区意识、促进长期行为改变以及最终有助于减少疾病传播方面的潜力。此外，人工智能（AI）可以融入寓教于乐的方法中，以满足对个性化和有效学习方法日益增长的需求。我们认为，这种由人工智能驱动的寓教于乐可以为寄生虫病控制的可持续进展提供支撑。
