Let's Play! A Board Health Game Development and Validation for Children with Atopic Dermatitis

Several health games have been developed for pediatric patients in recent years but few for children with atopic dermatitis (AD). As this chronic disease requires changes in daily habits, this study aimed to develop and validate the content of a board health game for children with AD. This is a content development and validation study of Dermatrilha^TM, a board health game about AD. The instrument aims to promote interactions between children with AD and health care providers and offers the exchange of experiences, feelings, and knowledge about the disease in a playful way. The five stages of development of the board game were (a) planning, (b) development, (c) preparation of content validation questionnaires, (d) evaluation by a committee of experts, and (e) pretest with the target audience. The expert committee group consisted of 20 professionals: 5 physicians specialized in pediatric dermatology, 5 psychologists specialized in health psychology, 5 designers with experience in illustration, and 5 early childhood educators. The target audience consisted of 25 children aged 7-12 years with AD. The evaluation of the expert committee found 0.95 in the general content validity index and 0.92 in the target audience, thus exceeding 0.80 in all items. The board health game Dermatrilha has proven to be a psychoeducational tool for the therapeutic education of children with AD, enabling the exchange of experiences, feelings, and knowledge about the disease among peers and health care providers.