Implications of video game-based education for adolescents’ smoking knowledge and perceptions

Background: The ever-increasing prevalence of cigarette smoking in adolescents is considered a severe problem, especially in developing countries, e.g., Indonesia. Cigarettes are renowned for containing many harmful chemicals that generate various chronic diseases. Additionally, adolescents who are smoking cigarettes may have their emotions and behaviours disrupted. However, the current corrective acts are still orienting to the pictorial caution of how cigarette smoking can be dangerous. The pictures of damaged organs are displayed using simple media, such as a module, which are considered appealing and exciting, especially for adolescents. Accordingly, we propose video game-based education as one of the efforts to prevent cigarette smoking in adolescents.

Objective: To analyse the implications of video game-based education for adolescents’ cigarette smoking knowledge and perceptions.

Method: This research used a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test with a control group.

Results: Using an independent t-test, we found a significant implication of video game-based education for adolescents’ cigarette smoking knowledge (p-value <0.001) and perceptions (p-value <0.001).

Conclusions: Video game-based education was attested more effectively to elevate adolescents' cigarette smoking knowledge and perceptions than the module-based one.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2022; 51(1): 62-68