The Power of Gamification to Learn and Promote Healthy Habits among Children

Abstract

Childhood obesity is one of the biggest paediatric public health concern, affecting more than one in three schoolaged children in countries like Spain, Brazil and Greece. This paper describes the gamification approach used in the OCARIoT project in order to promote a long-term behavioral change towards healthy habits in children between 9 and 12 years old. This gamification approach has been designed and validated following a user centricapproach, with a gender-balanced population of around 100 children aged 9 to 12, in four schools in Spain, Greece and Brazil.