JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

While a treatment or the vaccine against COVID-19 is not available, access to information about the new coronavirus, transmission route, and ways to prevent the spread of infection are critical sanitary measures worldwide. Serious games have advantages in the dissemination of reliable information during the pandemic, as they can offer qualified content while providing interactivity with the user and have great reach over the internet.

Objective:

This study aimed to develop a serious game with the purpose of bringing scientific-based information on prevention and personal care against COVID-19. Besides, it proposed to assess the players' knowledge about COVID-19 topics.

Methods:

The study was carried out with the interdisciplinary collaboration of specialists in health sciences, computing, and design at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The health recommendations were grouped into six thematic blocks, presented in a quiz format. The software languages were based on the Progressive Web App with the Framework Ionic, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, and Typescripts (Angular). Open data reports of how users interact with the serious game were obtained using the Google Analytics API. The visual identity, logo, infographics, and icons were carefully developed considering a selection of colors, typography, sounds, and images suitable for young audiences. Cards with characters were introduced at the end of each thematic topic to interact with the player reinforcing the correct answers or alert the need to know more about the disease. The players' performance was assessed by the rate of errors and successes and analyzed by the linear correlation coefficient, over seven weeks. The agile SCRUM development methodology provided quick and daily interactions by developers through a webchat and sequential team meetings.

Results:

The game “COVID-19 - Did you know?” was available for free in the university public domain, on April 1st, 2020. The access number was 17,571, until September 2020. Disclosure actions such as reports on social media and television had a temporal correspondence with a greater access number. The players’ error rate in the topic “Mask” showed a negative trend (r = -.83; P = .01) over the weeks of follow-up. The other topics showed no significant trend over the weeks (P < .05).

Conclusions:

The gamification strategy for health education content on the theme of COVID-19 reached a young audience, considered a priority in the strategy of orientation towards the social distance. Specific educational reinforcement measures were proposed and implemented based on the players' performance. The improvement in the users’ performance in the topic about the use of the mask may reflect more information or adherence to its use over time.