Pediatric diet mobile game develop children’s short-term food choices

Levels of childhood obesity and obesity are rising worldwide, with long-term adverse effects on health and health care costs. In prior research, video and mobile games have helped children eat healthier and exercise more.

A new study examined how the food choices of 10- and 11-year-old Indian children were affected by playing a pediatric diet mobile game that uses comprehension learning – educating players not to make them aware of the lessons through innovations in neurocognitive training and immersion technology. The study found that the game significantly improved children’s food choices after they played.

The study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Hofstra University, Johns Hopkins University Communication Programs Center (CCP), FriendsLearn, Mithra Trust, Mind in Motion, Center for Communication and Change – India ( CCC-I), and Seethapathy Clinic and Hospital. The randomized controlled trial was designed and performed by researchers from CCC-I and CCP and data modeling and analysis were conducted by CMU. The study appears in JMIR Health and Health.

While many factors contribute to overweight and obesity, diet decisions are a major factor. Video games that children see as a fun activity rather than a learning tool provide a great opportunity to change children’s health behaviors by suddenly delivering relevant experiences. We examine gamified interventions as ‘digital vaccine’ candidates that have the potential to influence changes in lifestyle behaviors and lead to better health outcomes. “

Rema Padman, Principal Research Author and Professor of Trustees, Healthcare Management and Information Science, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University

(Digital vaccines are a subset of digital, evidence-based therapeutic therapy, prevention methods that use digital technologies, such as gamified applications delivered through mobile devices, to encourage positive behavior.)

Most video games for kids use specific educational strategies, such as providing answers, feedback, instructions, or suggestions to players. This study examined how an action video game called fooya !, which uses intuitive learning to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in children, influenced real food choices. In the game, an avatar fights robots that represent unhealthy food, and the speed and body shape of the avatar changes in response to the type of food he eats.

Evidence on the impact of games using understandable educational strategies on pediatric healthy eating is limited. Using data about the clicks played by players as they played fooya !, researchers analyzed the association between game play patterns and behavioral outcomes related to diet health.

The study included 104 children aged 10 and 11 years from three schools in Chennai, India. The children were randomly assigned to a medical group that was playing fooya! or a control group to play a board game that did not reflect diet education. The children played the games for 20 minutes each in two sessions. After playing, they were shown three pairs of healthy and unhealthy food items from three categories – beverages (water and carbonated soft drinks), tasty snacks (cashews and potato chips), and snacks. sweet (raisins and chocolate bar) – and asked him to choose two things to eat.

Kids play fooya! more likely to choose healthy food immediately after playing the game, the study found. How many levels of the game they played did not affect children’s food choices, as previous research on this topic found, but with food facts children read while playing the game: Reading more facts about healthy foods was associated with healthier food choices, while reading more facts about unhealthy foods was associated with unhealthy food choices, the authors found called counterintuitive. Nevertheless, children were looking for more facts about healthy eating than about unhealthy food, which had a positive effect on the game.

“This finding will also have an impact on how we communicate with children about healthy food choices for behavior change,” said Uttara Bharath Kumar, technical advisor for social and behavioral change at CCP. “It is consistent with what we know from behavioral science that fear and negative communication do not work in addition to positive messages and promote self-efficacy – the idea ‘that you can do it!'”

“Nutrition and lifestyle are at the heart of a lifelong risk of non-communicable and infectious diseases,” explained Bhargav Sri Prakash, founder & CEO of FriendsLearn, the life science and health technology company that is a research and innovation partner. at the CMU Digital Vaccination Project.

“These findings demonstrate the potential for social impact by developing a rigorous evidence-based science for ‘digital vaccines’ based on neurocognitive computing and analytics. How we build a platform of experiences smart, rich, like a game, we aim for the health of children and families through science. “

Among the limitations of the study, the authors note, its small size, homogeneous groups of children, and short-term food choices, limit the general capacity of the decision-makers. Long-term studies on this topic can help determine long-term effects, the authors suggest.

“By examining the complex interactions between game play patterns and health behaviors, our findings can inform the design and use of more effective mobile games for improving children’s dietary health,” he notes. -near Yi-Chin Kato-Lin, associate professor of information systems and analytics industry at Hofstra University, collaborated on the study. “For example, video game designers may want to limit the display of unhealthy foods in their games.”