"Serious games" are a novel and entertaining approach for nutritional education. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the short-term effectiveness of "Fit, Food, Fun" (FFF), a serious game to impart nutritional knowledge among children and adolescents. Data collection was conducted at two secondary schools in Bavaria, Germany. The gameplay intervention (gameplay group; GG) consisted of a 15-minute FFF gameplay session during each of three consecutive days. The teaching intervention (teaching group; TG) was performed in a classic lecture format. Nutritional knowledge was evaluated via questionnaires at baseline and post-intervention. Statistical analyses were performed using R (R Core Team, 2018). In total, baseline data were available for 39 participants in the GG and 44 participants in the TG. The mean age was 13.5 ± 0.7 years in the GG and 12.8 ± 0.9 years in the TG. There was a significant (p-value < 0.001) improvement in nutritional knowledge in both intervention groups. Moreover, a between-group difference with a significantly (p-value = 0.01) higher increase in nutritional knowledge was detected for the TG. This pilot study provides evidence for the short-term effectiveness of both educational interventions on the improvement in nutritional knowledge. Finally, the FFF game might be an adequate educational tool for the transfer of nutritional knowledge among children and adolescents.
Keywords: Germany; adolescents; children; gamification; nutritional knowledge; serious game.