RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Card games are easy, cost effective, culturally acceptable, as well as sustainable and require minimal infrastructure over other edutainment approaches in achieving health and oral health promotion goals. Therefore, we wanted to conceptualize, develop, and beta test an innovative oral health edutainment card game for preadolescent children in Bangalore, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An innovative oral health card game, titled "32 warriors" was conceptualized and developed to incorporate age appropriate, medically accurate oral health information. The card game aimed at empowering children to take appropriate care of their oral health. The card game was beta tested on 45 children, aged between 12 and 13 years. Using prepost design, a 32-itemed, closed-ended questionnaire assessed children's oral health knowledge, attitude, and feedback on the game. Change in mean scores for knowledge and attitude was assessed using "Wilcoxon Sign Rank test" at P < 0.05. "Effect size" was calculated. Feedback was categorized in terms of type of response and its frequency. RESULTS: Statistically significant improvement was observed in group mean overall score, mean knowledge, and attitude scores, respectively (pre 14.7 ± 2.91 and post 18.6 ± 4.35, P = 0.003; 11.8 ± 2.73, 14.76 ± 4.0, P = 0.000; 2.93 ± 1.09, 3.84 ± 1.02, P = 0.000), with mean effect size 0.5. Participants reported that they enjoyed the game and learned new things about oral health. CONCLUSION: The card game is appealing to children and improves their oral health knowledge and attitude as evidenced by beta test results. We need to further explore the demand, feasibility, and cost effectiveness of introducing this game in formal settings (school based)/informal settings (family and other social settings).