2 147 REVIEW OF APPLIED & CASUAL GAMES FOR MENTAL HEALTH Paper Country Target group N % male Age, mean (SD) Age range Intervention arms Intervention characteristics Assessments Variables measured Findings relevant for current review Sun et al. 2022*** China Secondary school students 390 53.8 13.10 (1.20) 11-17 years 1. Sharing, mind, and enjoyment (SME) smartphone app (applied game). 2. Waitlist control group (passive condition). 1. An experienced social worker gave an introductory workshop covering aspects of SME, SME in daily life, features of the app, anxious symptoms, and how to seek help for emotional disturbances. Thereafter, the app was used daily for 1 month. 2. The waitlist control group was offered the workshop and app after completing all assessments. Baseline, pre (immediately after the workshop, but before app use), post, and 2-months FU. Sharing, mind and enjoyment behaviours, subjective happiness, well-being, personal health and happiness, family health, happiness and harmony, self-perceived knowledge and understanding of anxious symptoms, satisfaction, subjective changes, difficulties in adherence, suggestions for improvement; age, gender, use of SME-related programs, baseline outcomes (covariates); students using the app with their parents (subgroup analyses). No differences in SME behaviours were found between the intervention and control group at post and FU. The intervention group did report greater increase in the awareness of anxious symptoms at post and FU compared to the control group. At FU, students who used the app with their parents showed a greater increase in SME-related behaviours than the control group. Tuijnman et al. 2021*** The Netherlands Adolescents 285 54.6 13.43 (0.67) 12-15 years 1. Moving Stories program, comprising of an introduction lesson, an applied video game and a contact session with someone who has lived experience with a depressive disorder. 2. No-intervention control. 1. The full program was delivered within one week; gaming consisted of five 15-minutes sessions. 2. Participants in the control group only filled out questionnaires and teachers received information on depression and suicide. Pre, post, 3- and 6-months FU. Mental health literacy (symptom recognition, first aid intentions and skills/knowledge, first aid confidence, beliefs about help, help-seeking intentions), stigma (personal and perceived stigma, social distance), first aid behaviour, help-seeking behaviour, depressive symptoms (distal/ side effect measure); program evaluation, contamination check. Compared with the control group, participants in the Moving Stories group improved after the program in personal stigma. Improvements were maintained at the 3-months FU. Participating in the Moving Stories program was not related to changes in depressive symptoms over time.
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