JMIR Serious Games最新文献

Background: Childhood and adolescent malnutrition, encompassing undernutrition and overnutrition, poses significant global health challenges, necessitating comprehensive dietary assessment tools. Existing dietary assessment methods, such as 24-hour dietary recalls (24HR), often fail to capture eating behaviors and food preferences.

Objective: This study aims to compare a newly developed gamified dietary assessment tool (GDA) with a traditional 24HR and to explore its applicability in assessing dietary behavior tendencies among children and adolescents.

Methods: A 2-phase study was designed, including an exploratory and an application study. The exploratory study included 30 school-aged participants, comparing the GDA with the 3-day 24HR. Nutrient and food intakes were analyzed using Pearson or Spearman correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots. The application study, conducted among 1541 adolescents (11-18 y), assessed dietary intake and eating behavior tendencies. Differences in dietary intake across age, gender, socioeconomic status, and weight status were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test. Multiple linear regression models were used to examine the associations of dietary intakes with emotional eating and with dining environment tendencies, respectively.

Results: In the exploratory study (n=30), the GDA demonstrated moderate agreement with 24HR for energy (r=0.46, P=.01) and carbohydrates (r=0.50, P=.005). Bland-Altman plots indicated good agreement for energy and carbohydrate intake between methods (mean differences around 0). For fat intake, although the mean difference was close to 0, the correlation was not statistically significant. In contrast, the GDA substantially overestimated protein intake (mean difference around 25 g). In the application study (n=1541), higher emotional eating scores were associated with higher snack consumption (β=0.438, 95% CI 0.035-0.840), and with lower protein (β=-0.159, 95% CI -0.267 to -0.052), fruit (β=-0.464, 95% CI -0.854 to -0.073), and nut consumption (β=-0.183, 95% CI -0.304 to -0.062). Participants who chose solitary screen eating consumed significantly more carbohydrates than those who selected "eat with peers" (β=4.2, 95% CI 1.2-7.1).

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the GDA effectively captures both dietary intake and contextual eating behaviors in young populations, providing data distinct from traditional methods, such as 24HR. As a complementary assessment approach, it offers valuable insights into food preferences and eating patterns through its interactive design.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/76435.].

Unlabelled: Adolescents' internet adaptability (IA) is crucial for their online behavior and mental health. Serious games (SGs), as an emerging educational tool, hold promise for enhancing this adaptability through engaging, goal-oriented learning. Yet, direct evidence in this area remains limited. This viewpoint aims to clarify the mechanisms through which SGs enhance adolescents' IA and to derive corresponding design principles that can inform educational practice and game development. Drawing on insights from both Chinese and international studies, this study adopts a cross-contextual perspective to explore how SGs can foster IA in varied educational environments. Beyond synthesizing existing findings, this viewpoint provides an integrated account of why IA is essential in contemporary digital life and how SGs can support its development. It proposes a 3-stage framework, illustrating how contextualized design, real-time feedback, and dynamic tasks promote experiential learning, self-regulation, and the transfer of online skills. Based on this framework, the study further articulates 6 core design principles: clear goal definition, interaction diversity, contextual authenticity, immediate, scaffolding and explanatory feedback, a dynamically adaptive learning environment, and safety-by-design for digital well-being. These principles translate the core characteristics and mechanisms of SGs into actionable guidance for developing effective IA interventions. By synthesizing theoretical insights with practical considerations, this viewpoint highlights how SGs can serve as accessible and scalable tools to support adolescents in navigating increasingly complex digital environments. Together, these insights provide practical implications for educators, curriculum designers, and digital game developers seeking to foster adolescents' safe, responsible, and adaptive engagement in online environments.