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The Effect of a Serious Health Game on Children's Eating Behavior

T

Tilburg University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Eating Behavior

Treatments

Behavioral: Serious health game

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

Details and patient eligibility

About

Background: Currently the dietary intake patterns of children do not meet the prescribed dietary guidelines. Consequently childhood obesity is one of the most serious health concerns. Therefore, innovative methods need to be developed and tested in order to effectively improve the dietary intake of children. Learning children how to cope with the overwhelming number of unhealthy food cues could be conducted effectively by serious health games.

Objective: The main aim of this study was to examine the effect of a serious health computer game on young children's eating behavior and attitudes towards healthy and unhealthy foods.

Methods: A cluster-randomized controlled trial with a between-subject design was conducted (N=157; 8-12 years), whereby children played a game that promoted a healthy lifestyle or were in the control condition. Children in the control condition attended regular classes and did not play a game. The game was designed in collaboration with researchers and pilot-tested before conducting the experiment among a group of children repeatedly. After one week of playing, attitudes towards food snacks and actual intake was assessed, whereby children could eat at libitum from fruits or energy-dense snacks.

Enrollment

157 patients

Sex

All

Ages

7 to 13 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • primary school between group 5 and 8

Exclusion criteria

  • n.a.

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Factorial Assignment

Masking

Single Blind

157 participants in 2 patient groups

Serious health game
Experimental group
Description:
Children played a serious health game with Garfield promoting health behavior, such as less intake of energy dense snacks, drink more water, and exercise more often.
Treatment:
Behavioral: Serious health game
control
Experimental group
Description:
Children in this condition did not play a serious health game and were in control condition.
Treatment:
Behavioral: Serious health game

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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