Play, learn and eat healthy food: A mobile game for children to fight obesity

Abstract

Obesity amongst children and youth is one of the major health issue in the state of Qatar. The percentage of obese and overweight people exceeds 40 percent. Many children are going to school without taking their breakfast. They buy, however, unhealthy or junk food from nearby shops, which results in many health problems, like obesity, diabetes, and teeth decay. To overcome this problem, we propose a learning system that incites children to change their habits and adapt a healthy lifestyle. The system is composed of two main components: 1) a video game and 2) an informative tool. The system enhances the children knowledge about healthy food and shows the importance of exercising in life. The game aims to develop children's eating habits and help them to maintain ideal weight and become healthier. On the other hand, the diet informative component aims to help parents to select the right food for their children based on their health conditions. According to the assessments carried out on children of age 6 to 12, the results show that most of them intended to change their eating life style after playing the game. This shows that the proposed solution is promising and may have a significant impact on children's health.