Development of a serious game for learning about safe sex and contraception in adolescence.
Lilian Mayumi Chinen Tamashiro, Luciana Mara Monti Fonseca
PMID 38922263WHAT IT FOUND
Adolescents and nurse experts rated a serious game app for safe sex as acceptable, but only four adolescents used it and no knowledge or behaviour outcomes were measured.
Key findings
01Nine teenagers were selected for development; one dropped out, leaving eight active participants.
02The four adolescents' responses were 90% positive, 8.75% neutral and 1.25% negative.
03Eight expert nurses gave an overall agreement score of 0.80, but the interface score was 0.62.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The evaluation was very small: four adolescents and eight expert nurses. There was no control group, randomisation, pre-test or post-test, so the study cannot show the app changed knowledge, condom use, contraception or sexual behaviour. The interface score was 0.62, below the 0.80 acceptability line, and experts reported installation problems, too much text, missing tutorial and broken links. Participants were convenience-selected teenagers aged 15 to 17 from one public school in São Paulo, so results may not apply to younger adolescents or other settings. One of nine development participants dropped out, and some original adolescents were lost before evaluation.
Declared interests
The article reports funding from CAPES and FAPESP, including grant number 2016/09102-9, and states the paper is part of PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre activity.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude the app improves safe sex, contraception use, pregnancy prevention or STI prevention. The study measured only acceptability and content agreement from four adolescents and eight expert nurses; the authors say further experimental and longitudinal research is needed.