Gamification to Support Adherence to a Therapeutic Ambylopia Treatment for Children: Retrospective Study Using a...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Digital Therapeutics
• Pediatric Vision Care

Background:

• Amblyopia treatment, typically patching, suffers from low patient adherence.
• Improving adherence is crucial for enhancing visual acuity in amblyopic eyes.
• Digital therapeutic games offer a novel approach to potentially boost adherence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if an updated version of digital therapeutic games (FAVAS) improves patient adherence in children (4-16 years) with amblyopia.
• To compare adherence rates between an older (2015) and a newer (2020) version of FAVAS games.
• To assess the impact of enhanced gamification and tablet functionality on adherence.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of pseudonymized patient data from occlusion therapy and FAVAS games.
• Comparison of adherence between patients using FAVAS 2015 (n=138) and FAVAS 2020 (n=129).
• Objective adherence calculated by comparing monitored game usage time against prescribed time.

Main Results:

• The FAVAS 2020 group spent significantly more time using the games (2651.2 min) compared to the FAVAS 2015 group (2009.3 min).
• Patient adherence improved significantly from 55.0% (SD 29.4%) in the 2015 group to 68.5% (SD 33.7%) in the 2020 group.
• The newer version (FAVAS 2020) demonstrated a statistically significant increase in adherence (P<.001).

Conclusions:

• The updated FAVAS 2020, with enhanced gamification and tablet functionality, significantly increased patient adherence.
• FAVAS 2020 represents a promising digital therapeutic tool to support and improve adherence in amblyopia treatment.
• This approach holds potential for more effective management of amblyopia in pediatric patients.