Abstract
BackgroundAlthough great progress has been made in the prevention and treatment of AIDS, there are still a considerable number of new infections annually, especially in adolescents. With the advance of technology, game-based education has gradually become an important tool for changing healthy behaviors among youth.MethodsA protocol for conducting a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the “AIDS Fighter · Health Defense”, a game-based AIDS education project aimed at improving the ability of adolescents to prevent AIDS. During the four-week intervention, participants will receive: 1) A virus combat game; 2) Goal setting to eliminate HIV; 3) Questions to be answered to be resurrected in the game; 4) Points ranking; 5) Recognition and Rewards. The primary outcomes include changes in participants’ knowledge, stigma attitude, and risk behaviors attitude related to AIDS after four weeks of intervention. The secondary outcomes are the participants’ AIDS-related risk behaviors three and six months after the intervention.DiscussionAIDS Fighter· Health Defense may be an innovative approach to help adolescents improve AIDS prevention capabilities, fill the gap in game-based AIDS prevention education in China, and gain experience of AIDS management.Trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR2000040195. Registered 25 November 2020.
Highlights
Great progress has been made in the prevention and treatment of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), there are still a considerable number of new infections annually, especially in adolescents
Some randomized controlled trials conducted in the United States and Africa targeting 11–15 years old adolescents have found that game-based AIDS education could improve knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to AIDS, and increase the effectiveness of AIDS prevention education, adolescents prefer game-based AIDS education, and are more willing to recommend it to their friends [10,11,12,13]
In developed countries, the focus of AIDS prevention education is on the sexual behavior of high-risk groups, but the focus of AIDS education in our study is on the AIDS-related knowledge of adolescents
Summary
Great progress has been made in the prevention and treatment of AIDS, there are still a considerable number of new infections annually, especially in adolescents. With the development of science and technology, AIDS prevention education has changed from traditional methods to modern methods. Some randomized controlled trials conducted in the United States and Africa targeting 11–15 years old adolescents have found that game-based AIDS education could improve knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to AIDS, and increase the effectiveness of AIDS prevention education, adolescents prefer game-based AIDS education, and are more willing to recommend it to their friends [10,11,12,13]. There are few gamesbased HIV education intervention studies in China, especially randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effects of game education
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