Background: Improving children's food literacy through school-based interventions can support developing healthy eating habits. However, teachers lack appropriate resources, time, and training to provide nutrition education in schools. Serious games, which are games designed for a purpose other than entertainment, have been demonstrated to improve children's food literacy and dietary intake and can address the barriers teachers face in providing nutrition education. Foodbot Factory (Arcand Lab) is a nutrition education intervention that is aligned with curricula and uses a serious game to provide nutrition education to students. Further evidence is needed to understand how serious games, including Foodbot Factory, can be researched in schools to support nutrition education.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a research study protocol that implements the curriculum-based nutrition education intervention Foodbot Factory into a real-world classroom setting. The evaluation of the protocol included study processes, resources, and management feasibility outcomes, as well as a preliminary assessment of scientific outcomes relevant to the intervention.

Methods: A nonrandomized study determined the feasibility of intervention implementation. Grade 4 and 4/5 classrooms were assigned to have nutrition education lessons for 5 days with either the Foodbot Factory or a control intervention. Outcomes were assessed in 4 feasibility domains of study processes (eg, recruitment and attrition rates), resources (eg, time taken to deliver the intervention), and management (eg, challenges with intervention delivery), and a preliminary assessment of scientific outcomes pertaining to the acceptability and impacts of the interventions. These outcomes were captured in semistructured field notes completed by study staff and a Nutrition Attitudes and Knowledge questionnaire and acceptability questionnaire completed by participants. Data were analyzed descriptively and using a paired t test to assess within-group changes in nutrition knowledge.

Results: In total, 4 classrooms participated in the feasibility study, with varying recruitment rates for schools (3/20, 15%), classrooms (4/4, 100%), parents (54/102, 53%), and children (49/54, 91%). The time required to implement the research protocol, including data collection and lesson plans, was sufficient and management of the intervention implementation was overall successful. Some challenges were experienced with classroom management during data collection, specifically with electronic data collection. After the intervention, participants reported a positive affective experience (26/41, 63%) and learning something new about healthy eating (31/41, 76%). Participants in both study groups improved their nutrition knowledge, but the changes were not statistically significant. The Foodbot Factory group had a statistically significant improvement in their knowledge of vegetables and fruit (P=.04) and protein foods (P=.03).

Conclusions: These findings indicate that the study protocol is feasible to implement and evaluate Foodbot Factory in a representative sample with select modifications to improve recruitment and data collection procedures.

Keywords: children; feasibility; food literacy; nutrition education; school nutrition intervention; serious games.

© Jacqueline Marie Brown, Nicholas Rita, Beatriz Franco-Arellano, Ann LeSage, Joanne Arcand. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org).

背景： 通过学校干预措施提高儿童的食品素养可以支持形成健康的饮食习惯。然而，教师缺乏适当的资源、时间和培训来在学校提供营养教育。严肃游戏（旨在娱乐以外的目的设计的游戏）已被证明能够改善儿童的食品素养和膳食摄入量，并且可以帮助解决教师在提供营养教育时所面临的障碍。Foodbot Factory (Arcand Lab) 是一项与课程相配套的营养教育干预措施，它利用严肃游戏为学生提供营养教育。需要进一步的研究证据来了解如何在学校环境中研究包括Foodbot Factory在内的严肃游戏以支持营养教育。

目标： 本研究的目标是评估将基于课程的营养教育干预措施Foodbot Factory纳入真实课堂环境中的研究方案实施的可行性。该方案的评估包括研究流程、资源和管理方面的可行性结果，以及与干预相关的初步科学成果评价。

方法： 一项非随机研究确定了干预实施的可行性。四年级和四五年级教室被分配为接受为期5天的营养教育课程，这些课程使用Foodbot Factory或对照干预措施进行教学。结果在四个可行性领域进行了评估：例如，研究流程（如招募率和流失率）、资源（如执行干预所需的时间），以及管理（如干预实施中的挑战），还包括关于干预可接受性和影响的相关初步科学成果评价。这些结果由研究人员完成的半结构化田野笔记、参与者填写的《营养态度与知识问卷》及《可接受性问卷》记录下来。数据通过描述性分析和配对t检验来评估干预组内部在营养知识方面的变化。

结果： 共有4个教室参与了可行性研究，不同学校的招募率（3/20, 15%），教室的招募率（4/4, 100%）、家长的招募率（54/102, 53%）和儿童的招募率（49/54, 91%）不一。实施研究方案所需的时间，包括数据收集和教学计划，都是足够的，并且整体上干预执行管理成功。在数据收集期间遇到了一些与课堂管理和电子数据收集相关的挑战。在接受干预后，参与者报告了一个积极的情感体验（26/41, 63%），并且学习了有关健康饮食的新知识（31/41, 76%）。两组研究参与者的营养知识都有所提高，但变化没有统计学意义。使用Foodbot Factory的小组在对蔬菜和水果以及蛋白质食品的知识上有显著改善（P=.04 和 P=.03）。

结论： 这些发现表明，在进行一些改进以优化招募程序和数据收集过程后，该研究方案可以在具有代表性的样本中实施和评估Foodbot Factory的可行性。

关键词： 儿童；可行性；食品素养；营养教育；学校营养干预；严肃游戏。