Abstract
Obesity is considered a global epidemic of the twenty-first century by the World Health Organization (WHO). Specifically, the Canary Islands has the highest level of this disease in Europe and 40% of children in Spain are overweight or obese. This increase is a direct result of changes in the lifestyles of the population and its nutrition. Because of this, we have designed an educational program based on motor games, active videogames and virtual learning environments to improve the long-term health of children. This article presents and analyzes the results of a study on the nutritional knowledge and adherence to the Mediterranean diet of 46 obese children aged 6 to 12 years in the Canary Islands who participated in an educational program. The study design was quasi-experimental, with two groups (experimental and control). A long-term longitudinal study (3 years) was carried out. A set of evaluation instruments was used for the different phases. The results show significant improvements between the experimental and control groups in terms of their knowledge of healthy nutrition and their adherence to the Mediterranean diet. As a main conclusion, we emphasize that a gamified educational intervention program supported by ICT helps to motivate and promote improvements in the nutrition of children.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thanks to the children and their families who have participated in this study. Also, we gratefully acknowledge the researchers and collaborators of PROVITAO from different areas: Health (Carmela Quirce González, Norberto Marrero Gordillo, Honorio Armas Ramos, Mariana E. Cairós González, Josue Monzón Diaz, Mercedes Murray), Technology (Yeray del Cristo Barrios Fleitas, Alberto Mora Carreño, Belén Armas Torres, Vanesa Muñoz Cruz, Lorenzo Moreno Ruiz, Jesús Rodríguez Alamo, Miguel A. Padrón, Niobe Jerez, Belén Armas Torres, Pablo V. Torres Carrion) and Education (Luis Navarro Campillo, Elisenda Espino Espino, Silvia Vera González, Isa Neves). Besides, we thank the Canary Islands Government Education Counseling and the schools and teachers who collaborated with the project.
Funding
This study was funded by “Fundación Caja Canarias” (grant number OBE05).
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the research committee of “Hospital Universitario de Canarias” and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Health questionnaire [21]
(*) Category Nutrition: [the HIGHER the score, the BETTER the knowledge of eating habits]
-Indicate which of these foods you consider to be more or less healthy.
Healthy | Unhealthy | |
Coffee Milk or shakes Refreshments Packaged juices Natural juices Hamburgers or sausages Sausages such as chorizo, mortadella, sausage ... Homemade or bagged potato chips Cakes and sweets Vegetables Fruit Candies (candies ...) Nuts (seeds, peanuts, nuts ...) Legumes (chickpeas, lentils ...) Butter or margarine Yogurt Fresh cheese Yellow cheese Chicken or turkey Meat with a lot of fat Fish Eggs or omelet | 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 | 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 |
-What foods should we consume daily, weekly and monthly?
Daily | Weekly | Monthly | |
Eggs Fish Olive oil Sweets Vegetables Cheese, milk, yogurt Cereals, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes ... Poultry Meat Fruits Beans, legumes and nuts | 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 | 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 |
-Overall, do you think your diet is healthy?
· No [0]
· A little [1]
· Enough / Could be improved [2]
· Very [3]
· I do not know [0]
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del Río, N.G., González-González, C.S., Martín-González, R. et al. Effects of a Gamified Educational Program in the Nutrition of Children with Obesity. J Med Syst 43, 198 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1293-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-019-1293-6