Serious games for children’s oral hygiene education: an integrative review and application search

Abstract This article aims to perform an integrative review on publications that discuss the use of serious games focused on education of children’s oral hygiene and a search for available apps with this same purpose. An integrative peer review was conducted in the databases IBECS, LILACS, SCIENCE DIRECT, SciELO, PUBMED, SCOPUS, MEDLINE and Scholar Google, from January to November of 2017 and in parallel a search of available applications on the Android® platform, and websites of computer science, such as the IEEE Xplore. In the integrative review, 12 articles were selected that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In searches on websites, 11 games were classified as serious games aimed for oral hygiene. A total of 284 apps were identified at Play Store®, with predominance for interventionist activity in dental offices, with pain, dental cavity and trauma being the main plots. Few applications focused on oral hygiene education are available. As for intended audience, there is the prevalence of children’s public. Despite the scarcity of publications on the subject, exploring technological resources as educational options for children’s oral hygiene indicate an area of knowledge with academic potential and possible applications for public health.摘要 本文旨在开展一项整合性综述，针对探讨以儿童口腔卫生教育为核心目标的严肃游戏（serious games）相关出版物，以及具备同类教育目标的可用应用程序展开系统调研。本研究于2017年1月至11月期间，在IBECS、LILACS、Science Direct、SciELO、PubMed、Scopus、MEDLINE及Google Scholar数据库中，针对经同行评议的相关文献开展检索，并同步针对Android®平台展开应用程序搜索，同时检索了IEEE Xplore等计算机科学领域专业网站。本次整合综述共筛选出符合纳入标准的文献12篇。在网站检索环节，共有11款游戏被归类为面向口腔卫生教育的严肃游戏。在Play Store®中共识别出284款相关应用程序，其中以牙科诊所内的干预类活动为主要应用场景，疼痛、龋齿与牙外伤为核心剧情主题。目前专注于口腔卫生教育的应用程序仍较为稀缺。就目标受众而言，儿童群体为主要覆盖人群。尽管该主题相关研究成果较为稀缺，但探索将技术资源作为儿童口腔卫生教育的可选方案，仍彰显出该领域具备学术潜力与公共卫生应用前景。