The Value of Children's Voices for a Video Game Development in the Context of Type 1 Diabetes: Focus Group Study

Children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) face daily challenges performing self-care tasks, controlling symptoms, and dealing with psychosocial issues. The use of video games to improve health is a successful support for persons with chronic diseases, promoting adequate self-management through simulations of real life. Involving future users in the development of games is essential to generating innovative, creative, and effective programs.

Our goal is to identify what children with T1DM need to know about their disease and their self-care tasks as well as their preferences in video games.

Children with T1DM provided input about their learning needs, self-care tasks, and preferences in video games. Three categories were identified through qualitative content analysis: dealing with emotions and knowledge, practical skills and awareness, and game preferences.

Children expressed concerns about the difficulties of self-care, lack of knowledge about diabetes, and lack of awareness about the consequences of behaviors related to self-care, which contribute to inappropriate behaviors and significantly impact self-management of their disease. They expressed enthusiasm for a video game for children with diabetes that considered their needs and preferences.

Findings support the potential benefits when children's input is considered in game design. Consideration of customer needs and preferences is a powerful resource in the development of video games with enhanced learning experience.