Improving Oral Health With Serious Games (AOTSM)

January 3, 2014 updated by: Jacqueline E. Pickrell, University of Washington

This study investigated if computer games can be effective at changing the way children take care of their teeth. We a museum exhibit with 3D virtual reality games called "Attack of the S. Mutans!" Our hypothesis was that children who played the games and visited the exhibit would show improved attitudes about oral health, which would translate into improved brushing and self-care habits.

In this randomized controlled study with school children aged 8-12, we compared the outcomes for three groups: Group 1) Visited Attack of the S. Mutans!; Group 2) Experienced a hands-on classroom presentation about virtual reality being used for healthcare; Group 3) Received no-treatment.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

161

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Washington
      • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98112
        • Firsthand Technology Inc.

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

8 years to 12 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

For participation in the study, enrollment criteria are as follows: 1) a dentist's diagnosis of tooth decay, or restorative dental work in the previous year; and 2) Parents or guardians provide usable baseline data, including contact information for follow-up questionnaires.

Exclusion Criteria:

None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Video Game Treatment
This group received the AOTSM game experience followed by additional oral health information. They did not receive any follow-up treatment after the exhibit.
Other: Attack of the S. Mutans
A research assistant led groups of students through the Attack of the S. Mutans exhibit. All participants played all the games and viewed all the graphical content of the exhibit.
Other Names:
  • AOTSM
Active Comparator: Control
Instead of playing Attack of the S. Mutans!, children in the control group attended a 90 minute classroom session about virtual reality applications for relieving pain and for therapy. This content was unrelated to oral health.
Other: SnowWorld
SnowWorld is a 3D first-person-shooter game developed by Firsthand Technology. In SnowWorld, the player shoots snowballs at penguins, polar bears, and other features of a frozen landscape. The game is designed to help burn victims cope with pain, and has no oral health messages.
Experimental: Video Game Treatment Plus Follow-Up
Children assigned to the Treatment-Plus conditions not only had the Attack of the S. Mutans video game experience, but also gained access to an educational website that reinforced the exhibit's teachings two months later. These students received a special login and password in the mail and were instructed to visit the site before completing their next questionnaire.
Other: Attack of the S. Mutans
A research assistant led groups of students through the Attack of the S. Mutans exhibit. All participants played all the games and viewed all the graphical content of the exhibit.
Other Names:
  • AOTSM
Other: Follow-up
This group experienced the Attack of the S. Mutans! exhibit and 3 doses of follow-up booster content at a web site.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Self-Efficacy
Time Frame: 8 months post treatment
Follow-up surveys were conducted at 3 points after the intervention for all groups. The survey included questions about the children's attitudes (self-efficacy) toward oral health and taking care of their teeth. Surveys were paper-pencil self-reports from both parents and children. Items were drawn from Morowatisharifabad and Shirazi, (2007) and adapted for ease of understanding for English speaking children.
8 months post treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Self-care behavior
Time Frame: 8 months post treatment
Separate surveys of children and their parents were conducted at 3 points after the intervention all groups. The survey included questions about how often and how well the children took care of their teeth.
8 months post treatment

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Oral health literacy
Time Frame: 8 months post treatment
we assessed children's oral health knowledge in two ways. First, children reported their overall oral health knowledge using three-point rating scales (=not really to 3=mostly) to respond to six items, including, "By brushing and flossing my teeth, I am less susceptible to tooth decay." Negatively worded items were reverse-coded, and the estimated internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of the pre-game survey was.49. Second, children indicated their brushing knowledge using five-point rating scales (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree) to respond to four items, including "Tooth brushing gets rid of bad breath."
8 months post treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Washington

Collaborators

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Howard A Rose, M.Ed., Firsthand Technology
  • Principal Investigator: Ari J Hollander, MSE, Firsthand Technology

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 2, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 3, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

January 6, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 6, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 3, 2014

Last Verified

January 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 35095-EB
  • 5R44DE019043-02 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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