A Digital Game on Promoting Family Well-being

SMART Family-Link Project: A Digital Game on Promoting Family Well-being

Advances in information communication technologies (ICT) allow for ICT-assisted health promotion to become more common. Integrating ICT in health promotion has been suggested to offer many advantages compared to traditional approaches to promote family well-being. Research has also shown the positive effects of game-based approaches in enhancing health promotion interventions, especially with children. We will develop and assess a digital family game with theme-based mini-games to enhance family communication and well-being.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Family
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Digital game

Detailed Description

With growing emphasis on the development and maintenance of healthy lifestyles, the family role has increasing importance. A family-based health promotion strategy can be instrumental in helping disseminate and reinforce knowledge and behaviours on family well-being and better equip families to protect themselves and promote family well-being amidst the pandemic.

This study aims to use a game-based approach to enhance knowledge and behaviours on family well-being. We will conduct quantitative and qualitative evaluation. The findings would provide preliminary evidence of the feasibility and effectiveness of such an approach in a family-based context. It would also guide the direction for future health education and awareness trials and related projects and campaigns for health promotion efforts and to help improve family well-being in the Hong Kong community and elsewhere.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 100
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Agnes Y Lai, PhD; Phone Number: 39176779; Email: agneslai@hku.hk

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 852
    • Recruiting
    • Hong Kong community
    • Contact: Agnes YK Lai, PhD; Phone Number: 3917-6283; Email: agneslai@hku.hk
    • Contact: Asa Choi, MA; Phone Number: 3917-6661; Email: asachoi@hku.hk

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 100 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Chinese-speaking;
• Individuals aged 18 years and above;
• Able to understand and play the game.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals who cannot meet the inclusion criteria.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention arm; Digital game	Behavioral: Digital game; A digital family game with theme-based mini games (epidemic prevention, exercise, diet, communication and parenting)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived improved family well-being	Change assessed by a validated one-item Family Happiness scale (score from 0 to 10, higher scores indicate more family happiness).	Baseline and one month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived improved family communication	Change assessed by a one-item family communication scale (score from 0 to 10, higher scores indicate better family communication).	Baseline and one month
Perceived improved family health	Change assessed by a one-item family health scale (score from 0 to 10, higher scores indicate better family health).	Baseline and one month
Family well-being knowledge and behaviors	Change assessed by outcome-based questions (scores from 0 to 10, higher scores indicate better knowledge and behaviors)	Baseline and one month
Practice of sharing family well-being knowledge	Assessed by outcome-based questions with categorical choices	One month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Agnes Y Lai, PhD, School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Edwards EA, Lumsden J, Rivas C, Steed L, Edwards LA, Thiyagarajan A, Sohanpal R, Caton H, Griffiths CJ, Munafo MR, Taylor S, Walton RT. Gamification for health promotion: systematic review of behaviour change techniques in smartphone apps. BMJ Open. 2016 Oct 4;6(10):e012447. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012447.
• Ameryoun A, Sanaeinasab H, Saffari M, Koenig HG. Impact of Game-Based Health Promotion Programs on Body Mass Index in Overweight/Obese Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Child Obes. 2018 Feb/Mar;14(2):67-80. doi: 10.1089/chi.2017.0250. Epub 2017 Nov 29.
• Chagas CMDS, Pontes E Silva TB, Reffatti LM, Botelho RBA, Toral N. Rango Cards, a digital game designed to promote a healthy diet: a randomized study protocol. BMC Public Health. 2018 Jul 24;18(1):910. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5848-0.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2020
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2022
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 7, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): September 16, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 9, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 27, 2021
• Last Verified: November 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Family well-being; Family communication
• Other Study ID Numbers: UW 20-353

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Will share after study finished
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Baseline and 1 month
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: The minimal anonymized dataset will be available upon request to interested researchers. For interested researchers, please contact, Ms Shirley Sit (email shirlsit@hku.hk), (School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong) for further information.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No