"In 2000, Patient Education & Counseling reported on Watch, Discover, Think, and Act, a computer game designed to enhance self-management skills and improve asthma outcomes in inner-city children with asthma. Children ages six to seventeen years old from four pediatric practices were selected and randomly assigned to either use the computer game or the usual asthma education and treatment. The game's protagonist's asthma condition was tailored to match those of the child's, and, at the child's choice, the main character in the game could also be made to match their own gender and ethnicity. The children played the computer game as part of their regular asthma visits. The study found that the treatment associated with the computer game resulted in “fewer hospitalizations, better symptom scores, increased functional status, greater knowledge of asthma management, and better child self-management behavior.”
In the same vein, Packie & Marlon, by ClickHealth, was designed to help children and teenagers with diabetes improve their diabetes self-management. The game, originally released for the Nintendo SNES and Windows 95, saw use at home, in hospitals, in clinic waiting rooms, and in diabetes summer camps. In a clinical study performed with the National Institutes of Health, ClickHealth found that children who played Packie & Marlon showed gains in self-efficacy, communication with parents, and diabetes self-care. They also had fewer urgent doctor visits for diabetes-related problems. More recently, in early 2005, Guidance Interactive Healthcare released Glucoboy, a glucose meter that can be connected to a Nintendo GameBoy. As a reward for maintaining good blood sugar control, Glucoboy downloads video game programs into the GameBoy."
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