RESUMO
BACKGROUND: AIDS, which is caused by HIV, has long been one of the most significant global public health issues. Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, various types of nonelectronic communication tools have been commonly used in HIV/AIDS prevention and care, but studies that apply the potential of electronic games are still limited. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify, compare, and describe serious games and gamified systems currently used in HIV/AIDS prevention and care that were studied over a specific period of time. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted into serious games and gamified systems used in HIV prevention and care in various well-known digital libraries from January 2010 to July 2021. RESULTS: After identifying research papers and completing the article selection process, 49 of the 496 publications met the inclusion criteria and were examined. A total of 32 articles described 22 different serious games, while 17 articles described 13 gamified systems for HIV prevention and care. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the studies described in the publications were conducted in the United States, while only a few studies were performed in sub-Saharan African countries, which have the highest global HIV/AIDS infection rates. Regarding the development platform, the vast majority of HIV/AIDS gaming systems were typically deployed on mobile devices. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of using serious games and gamified systems. Both can improve the efficacy of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies, particularly those that encourage behavior change.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To develop and evaluate a serious game to deliver knowledge about the cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) protocol used in Craniofacial Center, Chiang Mai University. METHODS: The game "Cleft Island" was developed then extensively evaluated using different criteria, including the measured knowledge gained by participants, and gameplay experience. A group of 53 fourth and fifth-year medical students (male: 24, female: 29) were recruited to take part in an experiment. They were from the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, and had just rotated to the Department of Surgery. Three evaluations were conducted: 1) to test whether the players had competently gained CL/P knowledge; 2) to evaluate the usability of the game according to the System Usability Scale (SUS); and 3) to evaluate the game experience in terms of a Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) test. RESULTS: The results indicate a statistically significant improvement of medical students' knowledge after performing the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test (p < 0.5) between pre-test and post-test scores of the same medical student group; the acceptable average SUS score (M = 55.28) of the serious game; a moderate degree of experience of the GEQ components including positive affect (M = 2.64), competence (M = 2.49), and immersion (M = 2.21). CONCLUSIONS: Cleft Island can be used as an effective supplementary instructional material, which has the potential to provide significant knowledge of CL/P treatment protocol for the players. As far as the authors are aware, this is the first study to implement and assess a serious game for training in CL/P protocol.
