Gamification as a health education strategy of adolescents at school: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Thais Teixeira Dos Santos; Manuel Pardo Ríos; Gidyenne Christine Bandeira Silva de Medeiros; Ádala Nayana de Sousa Mata; Danyllo do Nascimento Silva Junior; Daniel Martínez Guillen; Grasiela Piuvezam

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0294894

Gamification as a health education strategy of adolescents at school: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 30;18(11):e0294894. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294894. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Post-Graduation Program in Public Health, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.
² Sistematic Review and Meta-analisys Laboratory (Lab-Sys/CNPq), Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, Brazil.
³ Faculty of Nursing, Catholic University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
⁴ Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
⁵ Multicampi School of Medical Sciences of Rio Grande do Norte (EMCM), Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Caicó, Brazil.
⁶ Department of Public Health, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN-Brazil), Natal, Brazil.

Abstract

The objective of the study is to present a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol for evaluating the effects of health education gamification-based interventions, on health parameters (food consumption, sleep quality and physical activity) of adolescent students. This protocol was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) database (CRD42022373833). The search will be performed in the following databases: MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, ERIC, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Cochrane, LILACS, APA, and ADOLEC. Intervention studies (clinical trials - randomized or non-randomized) and quasi-experimental studies will be included. The risk of bias will be assessed using the Risk of Bias in Non-randomized Studies of Interventions tool for randomized controlled trials, non- randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental trials. Two independent researchers will conduct all assessments, and any disagreements will be consulted with a third reviewer. Data analysis and synthesis will be analyzed using RevMan 5.4.1 software. We will conduct the study in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P) guideline. The review will summarize the current evidence on gamification health education changes in parameters related to the health of adolescents. Gamification has been used to verify the increase in adherence to healthy habits or the development of health-related skills, but there are still few results for the adolescent population. We expect that the systematic review could indicate strategies with gamification interventions and also determine how these strategies can improve health parameters of adolescent students, and they will be available as a reference for these interventions.

Copyright: © 2023 dos Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Gamification*
Health Education*
Humans
Meta-Analysis as Topic
Schools
Systematic Reviews as Topic

Grants and funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior-Brasil (CAPES) (finance code: 001), and in part by the Ignacio H Larramendi Research Grant granted by the Mapfre Foundation in 2022 to UCAM-Catholic University of Murcia for the 'PECES' research project to MPR and his research team (finance code: N/A).