Promoting health in schools through a board game

Primary prevention and health promotion have become salient topics in Canadian society and in nursing during the past two decades. The noncommunicable chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, have been linked to specific lifestyle behaviors or habits, which often develop early in life. The success of public health efforts to improve the health status of all Canadians depends substantially on the success of educational programs directed toward children. Effective teaching strategies that seek to promote health and wellness in children need to be developed and empirically evaluated. Educational games may provide an efficient vehicle for carrying out developmentally specific nursing interventions in school settings. This article begins with a brief overview of the historical origins of games, along with their advantages and disadvantages as educational strategies. The results of a pretest-posttest control group design study that evaluated the effectiveness of a board game as a primary prevention teaching strategy with 23 sixth grade children in Winnipeg, Manitoba are presented. The experimental group had significant gains in knowledge related to anatomy and physiology, diet, and lifestyle risk factors associated with the development of heart disease and cancer.