Background:
Organ donation and transplantation face a critical global shortage and are considered a major public health challenge. One of the most significant factors contributing to this shortage is the lack of proper knowledge and awareness about organ donation. Many individuals remain uninformed about how organ donation works, the eligibility criteria, and the impact it can have on saving lives, which leads to low donor registration rates and missed opportunities for life-saving transplants. Recent studies have found that gamification shows promising results for helping enhance community health education by promoting active learning, increasing health literacy, and encouraging behavior change through interactive, culturally relevant, and easily accessible platforms. This study aimed to assess the effects of gamification on donor-organ and transplantation awareness, using a recently developed and validated board game to promote knowledge about organ donation and transplantation by the public in a southeastern high school in Brazil.

Methods: This was a randomized clinical trial with a convenience sample of first-year students, aged 14 to 17 years of age from two public high schools. One school was randomized to an experimental group (EG) and the other as the control group (CG). The students from the EG received information about organ-donor and transplantation by playing the board game, while the CG received the same information contained in a brochure. Both groups were evaluated twice using a validated 20 question-multiply choice questionnaire: before the intervention (T1) and immediately after the intervention (T2) to evaluate their retention of the information.

Results: Mean standard distribution (±) age of the students from the EG (N=182) and the CG (N=189) were 15.1 ± .54 and 15.4 ± .48 years, respectively. There were significant improvements (p < 0.05) and mean scores in knowledge scores for 14 of the 18 questions for T2 in comparison to the T1 baseline scores in the EG group. Differences in knowledge scores from T1 to T2 were non-significant or poorer in the CG group in comparison to the EG group. Conclusions: Gamification using a board game can significantly improve organ donation and transplantation knowledge, with better retention than conventional teaching. It is a promising method for boosting public knowledge about making decisions on becoming an organ-donor and the impact it can have in saving the lives of others.

Keywords: Organ donation and transplantation, board game, high school, adolescents, health education, questionnaire.