Effect of a novel video game on stroke knowledge of 9- To lo-year-old, low-income children

Abstract

Background and Purpose-Improving actionable stroke knowledge of a witness or bystander, which in some cases are children, may improve response to an acute stroke event. Methods-We used a quasiexperimental pre- Test post- Test design to evaluate actionable stroke knowledge of 210 children aged 9 to 10 years in response to a single, 15-minute exposure to a stroke education video game conducted in the school computer laboratory. After immediate post- Test, we provided remote password-protected online video game access and encouraged children to play at their leisure from home. An unannounced delayed post- Test occurred 7 weeks later. Results- Two hundred ten children completed pretest, 205 completed immediate post- Test, whereas 198 completed delayed post- Test. One hundred fifty-six (74%) children had Internet access at home, and 41 (26%), mostly girls, played the video game remotely. There was significant improvement in stroke symptom composite scores, calling 911, and all individual stroke knowledge items, including a distractor across the testing sequence (P<0.05). Children who played the video game remotely demonstrated significant improvement in knowledge of 1 symptom (sudden imbalance) compared with children who did not (P<0.05) although overall composite scores showed no difference. Conclusions-Stroke education video games may represent novel means for improving and sustaining actionable stroke knowledge of children.