Abstract
Physical inactivity has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Childhood overweight and obesity are important public health problems in Europe affecting the psychophysical development of children and adolescents and leading to many diseases. Nowadays, as children and teenagers are familiar with technological advancements, they can be used to promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. For this purpose, Battle4Health, a two dimensional serious game for mobile devices, was designed and developed. Battle4Health assists its users to have a healthier lifestyle by gaining knowledge about their nutritional, sleep and walking habits. In order to measure the enjoyment and usability of the developed serious game, an evaluation was made with questionnaire method. The EGameFlow [1] and USE [2] questionnaires were used and the feedback was overall positive. Battle4Health was found to help its users to learn about the importance and how to have a healthier lifestyle. However, there should be an improvement regarding the immersion and the challenges that the game offers, by adding more questions on the game’s quiz subsystem.
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Acknowledgment
This research has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The authors of this research would like to thank SUGAPAS (Project No: 613270-EPP-1-2019-1-LT-SPO-SCP) project team who generously shared their time, experience, and materials for the purposes of this paper.
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Karavidas, L., Skraparli, G., Tsiatsos, T., Douka, S., Avgerinos, A., Philippou, C. (2022). Evaluating a Serious Game to Promote Healthy Lifestyle in Young People. In: Auer, M.E., Tsiatsos, T. (eds) New Realities, Mobile Systems and Applications. IMCL 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 411. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96296-8_103
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