The FIT Game: preliminary evaluation of a gamification approach to increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in school.
OBJECTIVE
Incentive-based interventions designed to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption tend to yield positive, short-term outcomes. Because consumption most often returns to baseline levels when incentives are removed, sustainable long-duration interventions may be needed to impact public health. Anticipating that low-cost interventions will be more appealing to schools, the present study explored a low-cost, game-based intervention.


METHODS
An alternating-treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of the FIT Game on objectively measured FV consumption in one elementary school (n=251) in Utah. During the Fall 2013 semester, game-based rewards were provided to heroic characters within a fictional narrative read by teachers on days when the school, as a whole, met a fruit or vegetable consumption goal in accord with the alternating-treatments design.


RESULTS
On intervention days, fruit and vegetable consumption increased by 39% and 33%, (p<0.01, p<0.05; binomial tests), respectively. Teacher surveys indicated that students enjoyed the game and grade 1-3 teachers recommended its use in other schools.


CONCLUSIONS
This game-based intervention provides a promising step towards developing a low-cost, effective, and sustainable FV intervention that schools can implement without outside assistance.
Department of Psychology, Utah State University, 2810 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-2810, USA. Electronic address: jones.brookea@gmail.com.
Brooke A
BA
Jones
Department of Psychology, Utah State University, 2810 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-2810, USA. Electronic address: greg.madden@usu.edu.
Gregory J
GJ
Madden
Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences, Utah State University, 8700 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-8700, USA. Electronic address: heidi.wengreen@usu.edu.
Heidi J
HJ
Wengreen
D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005178:Faculty; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology; D005522:Food Services; D005638:Fruit; D005717:Games, Experimental; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D012574:Schools; D014589:Utah; D014675:Vegetables
Elementary school; Fruit and vegetable consumption; Gamification; Incentives