Gamification is being used increasingly to educate us and to help solve all kinds of scientific and societal problems. Researchers from Columbia University have now showed us that a video game can help increase stroke awareness in young children. Their results have just been published in journal Stroke. The research showed that in a group of 210 nine and ten year olds, the children who played “Stroke Hero” for 15 minutes were 33% more likely to recognize a stroke.
The need to educate people, and especially children, about stroke was the reason for the creation of the game. Sometimes children are witnesses of strokes and they could save lives if able to recognize a stroke and call for help. And since games guarantee that kids will pay attention, “Stroke Hero” was developed to promote this education.
In “Stroke Hero”, you navigate a spaceship-like vehicle through an artery, while listening to a catchy hip hop tune. Blood clots and atherosclerotic plaques block the way and clot-dissolving drugs are the ammunition that can be used to blow the blood clots away. Whenever you are out of ammo, you have to answer questions about strokes to refill the ammo. These questions mainly involve stroke symptoms and what to do in case you witness a stroke.
Hopefully, this game will encourage and inspire others to create more children friendly medical education. And let us all be honest: not only children love video games. “Stroke Hero” can be played at the website of Hip Hop Public Health: who knows you might learn something as well.
News release: Video game teaches kids about stroke symptoms and calling 9-1-1…
Article in Stroke: Effect of a Novel Video Game on Stroke Knowledge of 9- to 10-Year-Old, Low-Income Children…
Link: Hip Hop Public Health…
