Roles of Serious Game in Diabetes Patient Education

Background Diabetes affects many people across the world. Diabetes education plays a critical role in helping people with diabetes to perform diabetes self-management at home. Intervention We explored whether serious games can be used as a supplementary tool for diabetes education. Two online video games- the “Diabetic Dog” game and “Carb Counting with Lenny the Lion” game, were used for the study. Methods Fourteen patients with Type II diabetes were recruited from the Norman Diabetes Center by personal invitations. After initial training, the patients played the games a minimum of four times per week during the two-week study duration. Pre- and post-assessments of patients' diabetes knowledge and self-efficacy in diabetes self-management behaviors were performed using questionnaires, and an interview was conducted at the end to gauge the effectiveness of the game intervention. Results The results from the questionnaires show a general trend of improvement in patient diabetes knowledge and self-efficacy in diabetes self-management. A general trend of improvements in patients’ self-efficacy in controlling blood sugar level, handling abnormal blood sugar levels, taking insulin, and complying with a diabetes diet was observed. The interview results showed that the patients reinforced their diabetes knowledge and became more aware of their own lifestyles by playing diabetes educational games. They perceived the games as fun and easy to play. They also provided suggestions for the game design for diabetes education. Conclusion The study showed that serious game intervention had good potential to be a useful supplement to clinic-based diabetes education in improving patient diabetes knowledge and increasing patient self-efficacy in diabetes self-management behavior.