A Review of Serious Gaming as an Intervention for HIV Prevention

• Published in: Current HIV/AIDS reports Vol. 20; no. 4; pp. 181 - 205
• Main Authors: Smith, Ariel U., Khawly, Gabriella M., Jann, Janna, Zetina, Ana Paola Mata, Padilla, Janeth, Schnall, Rebecca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-08-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Computer & video games; Educational software; HIV; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Reviews; Topical Collection on eHealth and HIV; Video Games; Young Adult; Young adults; Intervention; AIDs; Serious games; HIV; Gaming
• ISSN: 1548-3568; 1548-3576; 1548-3576
• DOI: 10.1007/s11904-023-00659-9

Purposeof Review
Young people face the highest number of new HIV infections globally. With today’s increasing access to smartphones, serious games have been viewed as an effective means of improving knowledge and behavioral outcomes. This systematic review describes current HIV prevention serious games and their relationship with HIV-related knowledge and behavioral outcomes.
Recent Findings
A search of HIV prevention serious games was conducted using PubMed, CINAL, IEEE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. A total of 31 papers were identified, which consist of 20 studies and 11 protocols. Results for knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors were mixed. Two interventions reported improvement in PrEP usage and optimal dosing.
Summary
Gaming appears to be a viable and engaging method to improve knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral outcomes to promote HIV prevention among diverse groups of adolescents and young adults globally. However, additional research is needed to understand how to implement this modality effectively.