The mothers who often restrict their little ones from playing video games should maybe stop doing so. A recent study reveals that videogames can be used to impart knowledge on health problems.
Researchers at the American Heart Institution showed in their latest study after playing the video game, The Stroke Hero, children were better able to identify the signs of stroke and prompt in calling 911.
The researchers recruited 198 children for their study. The participants aged between 9 and 12, belonged to low income families and their understanding of signs and symptoms of stroke was tested before and after playing the video game.
The participants were also encouraged to play the game at home and their attitude toward stroke was again retested after seven weeks.
In the game Stroke Hero, the players have to navigate their spaceships through arteries and shoot down the blood clots with a clot busting drug. When the drug gets exhausted the players have to answer questions related to stroke awareness before refueling. In case they fail to answer, they are told the correct answers and lose a life.
The test results showed the children who played the game have 33 percent better understanding of the signs of stroke and are faster at calling 911. The children who continued playing the game at home were 18 percent more likely to recognize the signs of stroke compared to the children who had played the game only for once.
According to the researchers, the children need to be conversant with the signs of stroke as in many such cases children were found to take the initiative to call up 911.
Video games can be used as an educational tool to raise awareness about such issues.
However, this study did not include any controller group, (the children who did not play the game or learnt the signs of strokes through other means).
An earlier study revealed that playing videogames encourages reading habits in children although too much addiction to video games affects sleeping patterns.
