Abstract:

Introduction:
Today, therapeutic education has proven to be a crucial component in the management of chronic diseases in patients of all ages. It is aimed at improving the patient's awareness about his condition, adherence to therapy and behavioural control prescriptions. For paediatric patients, until now, therapeutic education has been based primarily on the cooperation of the parental couple, taking advantage of their attitudes and skills that would ensure the optimal level of care and assistance for the young patient. However, today, the skills of the "born-digital" paediatric population in gaming and the use of multimedia devices (i.e., tablets, PCs, and smartphones) may allow them to exert an educational action directly on the small patient with chronic illness, through interaction with serious games to promote the same therapeutic education.

Aims:
An educational game (serious game) on tablet was designed and perfected, with the aim of promoting in child with atopic dermatitis, adherence to therapy and healthy behaviours, as well as better management of symptoms, respiratory and sleep disorders.

Methods:
A team of dermatologists, psychologists and computer scientists created a serious game designed to present in the form of a game the therapeutic rules and behaviours to be followed during the treatment of paediatric atopic dermatitis. In order to test in real-world the acceptability and use of the game, a focus group was organized with atopic children and children without dermatological conditions in which an initial version of the game was submitted.

Results:
The collection of data from the children's interactions with the game during the focus group, it allowed to produce an updated version of the game for current use. A final version of game was obtained and presented.

Conclusions:
The current digital paediatric population may prove to be particularly prone to take up Therapeutic Education content through interactions with specially designed educational games. The availability of an educational game designed for the children with atopic dermatitis may allow to improve coping strategies of this fragile patients.

Keywords:

Atopic dermatitis, Therapeutic education, Serious game, Learning object.