BACKGROUND
Adolescents and young adults (AYA) are key population for HIV infection. Effective intervention could reduce the transmission of HIV among AYA and improve the quality of life of AYA living with HIV. Some studies have shown effectiveness of serious games on HIV prevention and control for AYA. However, there are limited reviews on serious gaming to prevent and control HIV for AYA.
OBJECTIVE
To review and analyze the effectiveness of serious games on HIV prevention and control for AYA, and to provide references for studies related to serious games and their clinical promotion and application.
METHODS
Nine databases were searched from January 1986 to December 2023, including CNKI,VIP, Wan Fang, SinoMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline, Wed of Science, and PubMed. Studies related to the serious games on HIV prevention and control for AYA were collected.
RESULTS
A total of 1660 studies were searched and 11 studies met the inclusion criteria. The studies were mainly related to the game mechanism, application content, application scenarios, theoretical frameworks, and effectiveness of serious games on HIV prevention and control for AYA. It shows positive effects in promoting AIDS knowledge, reducing risky sexual behaviors, improving antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, and other aspects of HIV prevention and control for AYA.
CONCLUSIONS
Serious games have become a novel and effective intervention on HIV prevention and control among AYA. However, larger-scale and higher-quality studies are needed to explore and verify the effectiveness of serious games on HIV prevention and control for AYA from different areas and cultures.