Effect of a novel video game on stroke knowledge of 9- to 10-year-old, low-income children.
OBJECTIVE
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.
From the Department of Neurology, The Neurological Institute of New York, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY.
Olajide
O
Williams
Mindy F
MF
Hecht
Alexandra L
AL
DeSorbo
Saima
S
Huq
James M
JM
Noble
D002545:Brain Ischemia; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D020300:Intracranial Hemorrhages; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City; D011203:Poverty; D020521:Stroke; D018910:Video Games
health education; healthcare disparities; stroke