Preventing the Spread of Infectious Diseases: A Serious Game

Introduction and objective It is challenging for people with low health literacy - described in this project as people who participate in practical education and/or mild intellectual disability (LVB) - to adhere to measures against an infectious disease such as COVID-19. There is a need for appropriate behavioral interventions that take into account the challenges and complexity of this group. Playing a serious game is a promising intervention to promote COVID-19-related preventive behavior. Playing a serious game can increase awareness, support and willingness to apply certain behavioral measures. The aim is to use an existing, adapted serious game to support people with low health literacy in carrying out prevention measures. This increases support and willingness among vulnerable target groups to take appropriate measures themselves and to adhere to them. Plan of approach We focus on people with MID and students in practical education. The project has a mixed method design and consists of three phases: 1) further development of the serious game in co-creation with the target group and pre-testing of the game; 2) playing and evaluating the effects of the game; 3) evaluation of the process and further implementation. The project combines different theories to gain insight into pre-motivational factors and post-motivational factors. This also aims to achieve the step of converting intention into action. This intervention is evaluated for effectiveness with a control group. Expected outcomes: 1) Development of different scenarios tailored to vulnerable target groups for the serious game; 2) Intention to perform preventive behavior after playing the game; 3) Procedure improvements for serious game adjustments and collaborations with experienced experts. The project further looks at underlying determinants of intention and behavior, health literacy and the prevention of infection and spread of an infectious disease such as COVID-19.