A Game-based Educational Approach to Promote Child Safety Knowledge and Behaviours
Condition: Injuries; Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The project will design and develop a game for teaching safety as a way to reduce childhood
      injury. To evaluate the effectiveness of the designed game, a randomized controlled trial
      (RCT) following the CONSORT RCT guidelines will be conducted. All students in Primary 4-6
      (equivalent to US Grades 4-6) from the participating school will be invited to join the
      trial, which will be then randomized into the game or health education group. All students in
      the game group will be invited to play the designed game with instructions provided, while
      those in health education group will receive a comprehensive package on safety information.
      The intervention will last 4 weeks, with the safety knowledge and behaviours, and
      psychosocial difficulties of the participants being assessed before and 1 and 3 months after
      the intervention. The effectiveness of the intervention in achieving the proposed targets
      will be estimated using linear mixed models.
    

Detailed description: 
      To evaluate the effectiveness of the Safe City game, a randomized controlled trial (RCT)
      following the CONSORT RCT guidelines will be conducted.The evaluation will therefore be
      conducted in four school districts. An invitation will be sent to each selected school. After
      the school principal agrees to join the trial, informed written consents will be obtained
      from parents of the participating students by our research staff before randomization. The
      participant recruitment and randomization process will be independently carried out by
      different research assistants. Outcome assessors will be blinded to the allocation of
      participants in each group.

      All consenting student participants, before intervention, will be asked to complete a
      questionnaire on basic socio-demographics. The intervention will last 4 weeks. Their safety
      knowledge and behaviours, HRQOL and psychosocial difficulties will be assessed before and 1
      and 3 months after the intervention.

      Game ("intervention") group The Safe City game intervention uses a game-based learning
      approach to teach players how to recognize and remove injury hazards from different homes and
      sports areas. It also highlights the need to pay attention to traffic and safety facilities
      to prevent injuries in a real-world environment. Players will create their own avatar to
      assume the duties of safety inspectors in the game. Point, level and reward systems will be
      included to increase player motivation to engage in the game.

      Participants assigned to the intervention group will be given a manual containing
      instructions to play the Safe City game. A research assistant will provide a briefing session
      on the game in each participating school. A unique username and password set will be created
      for each user to log in the game. This login information will be provided to the student
      participants in a sealed envelope after the briefing session. The participants will be
      instructed to play the game as many times as desired within a 4-week timeframe. The players
      ranked in the top 20 will receive a reward in the form of book coupon after the intervention
      ends.

      Health education ("control") group All students in the health education group will receive a
      comprehensive package on safety information. The information package includes both printed
      and electronic promotional materials regarding safety and a comprehensive list of relevant
      website and information sources. The information from these relevant websites and information
      sources are similar to those used in setting the safety case scenarios for the Safe City
      game. As a result, both intervention arms will have comparable accessibility to
      safety-related information and the major contrast between the two groups will be the method
      of presentation (game-based learning vs traditional health promotion approach, i.e.
      unidirectional information package).
    

Intervention name(s): Safe City game; Health education
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Other
Intervention description(s): The game intervention uses a game-based learning approach to teach players how to recognize and remove injury hazards from different homes and sports areas. It also highlights the need to pay attention to traffic and safety facilities to prevent injuries in a real-world environment. Players will create their own avatar to assume the duties of safety inspectors in the game. Point, level and reward systems will be included to increase player motivation to engage in the game.; All students in the health education group will receive a comprehensive package on safety information. The information package includes both printed and electronic promotional materials regarding safety and a comprehensive list of relevant website and information sources. The information from these relevant websites and information sources are similar to those used in setting the safety case scenarios for the Safe City game. As a result, both intervention arms will have comparable accessibility to safety-related information and the major contrast between the two groups will be the method of presentation (game-based learning vs traditional health promotion approach, i.e. unidirectional information package).
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention