Preventing adolescent's Diabesity: design, development and first evaluation of Gustavo in Gnam's Planet

Objective: To design, develop and evaluate a sedentary Game for Health (G4H) "Gustavo in Gnam’s Planet" (Gustavo), aimed to improve knowledge on healthy foods and to increase consumption of healthy foods. Subjects and Methods: Eighty-three high school students were enrolled in the study. The game was designed and developed by a multidisciplinary team. Behavioral change theories were adopted to guide the design of the health messages. Participants were assessed about food frequency, healthy food knowledge and game’s interest. Results: Forty-seven subjects (mean age 14.9±1.0 years, 72.3% males) completed the study. At posttest participants showed significant higher scores (i.e. increased knowledge) in the questionnaire on knowledge of healthy foods (70.0±9.2 vs. 71.3±10.0 for pretest and posttest, respectively; p<0.05). Improvements in healthy eating habits were also detected: higher frequency consumption during a week of white meat [1 (1-2) vs. 2 (1-2); p=0.01], eggs [1 (1-1) vs. 1 (1-2); p=0.01] and legumes [1 (0-1) vs. 1 (1-2); p=0.03], and lower frequency consumption of sugar packaged snacks [1 (0-1) vs. 0 (0-1); p=0.009]. Most of the participants found the game easy to use and clear in its content. Half of the participants found the game interesting. Conclusions: Our study shows that Gustavo is a promising tool for health education, in schools or in other environments. Limitations of the study and future directions are discussed.