Table 1.
Summary of the characteristics of the 7 studies.
| Author(s) (year of publication) | Country | Journal | Research design | Sample size | Sample characteristics | Type of vaccine |
| Bertozzi et al (2013) [24] | United States | International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations | Preplay and postplay assessments through face-to-face questionnaires | 12 | Lower-income, school-aged children | Influenza |
| Böhm et al (2014) [32] | Germany | Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization | Controlled laboratory experiment (8 sessions) with postexperiment quantitative data collected through questionnaires | 180 (124 women) | College-aged social science students, mean age 23.37 years (SD 4.09 years) | Influenza |
| Ruiz-Lopez et al (2016) [35] | Norway | Journal of Medical Internet Research Serious Games | Mixed-methods with beta testing, focus groups (2 sessions), and self-administered questionnaires | 40 for the beta testing, 6 women for the first focus group, 23 (10 girls) for the second focus group | First focus group age range 40-60 years, second focus group (high school students) age range 16-18 years |
HPVa |
| Cates et al (2018) [33] | United States | Games for Health Journal | Focus group (5 sessions) | 16 preteens (5 girls) and 9 parents (7 women) | 11-12 years old (preteens) | HPV |
| Darville et al (2018) [34] | United States | Simulation & Gaming | Randomized controlled trial (2x2 fully crossed between subjects) with post-experimental quantitative data collected through questionnaires (eg, Likert scales) | 108 | College-aged male students (18-26 years old) | HPV |
| Fadda et al (2017) [30] | Italy | Journal of Medical Internet Research mHealth and uHealth | Mixed methods, including a randomized controlled trial, Web-based survey (including the Mobile App Rating Scale [37]), and qualitative telephonic interviews | 140 (138 women) for the survey, 60 for the telephone interviews | Parents | MMRb |
| Eley et al (2019) [31] | United Kingdom | Journal of Medical Internet Research Serious Games | Mixed methods including pre- and post-experiment questionnaires, focus groups (26 sessions), and open-ended questions in the post-experiment questionnaire | 473 (123 juniors and 350 seniors) for the questionnaire, 126 for the 26 focus groups | Students 7-16 years old | Infectious diseases |
aHPV: human papillomavirus
bMMR: measles, mumps, and rubella