IMPROVING CHILDRENS’ ORAL HYGIENE HABITS IN SRI LANKA VIA GAMIFICATION

Abstract

The researchers seek to provide a gamification model that will help children of Sri Lanka to improve their oral hygiene habits, thereby acting as a change agent to influencing adults’ behaviours to have good oral hygiene habits. The nature of the study was a multi-method due to its complexity. The study took place within 13 weeks, where data was collected from 50 families in a longitudinal manner in a natural environment. Both descriptive statistics & quantitative methods were used to analyze the data. This paper provides an overview of the various design options relating to Gamification. We believe that expedient designs need to consider all four clusters identified in our study: System Design, Challenges, Rewards, and Social Influences. Our findings suggest that the presence of many interdependencies enables and amplifies the effectiveness of Gamification. Our elements should be of particular interest since they show the comprehensive potential to motivate children in general through the application of gamification. Organizations should not see gamification as a ‘magic bullet’ for end-user motivation but as a means that has to be carefully and deliberately integrated into the model to support a motivational culture that would prompt sustainable behavior. As per the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the concept of gamification is studied in Sri Lanka.