Computer games help diagnose young kids’ asthma
Interactive computer games can help identify Asthma in children as young as 2 years old, according to a new study.
Researchers in Israel found that animated computer games were useful in teaching young children how to use a spirometer, an instrument that measures lung capacity and helps diagnosed Asthma.
Doctors usually don’t use spirometry for young children, because it’s difficult for them to follow the instructions—which require them, for example, to exhale forcefully into a hose connected to the spirometer.
Also, experts have not been able to agree on standard reference values for lung function in preschoolers.
There are some spirometry computer games on the market that focus on teaching children to exhale forcefully, using images like blowing out birthday candles. But they focus on only one aspect of the test—the initial exhale.
Some studies have shown that such “single-target” games are no better than teaching children verbally, Dr. Daphna Vilozni, the lead author of the new study, told Reuters Health.
So Vilozni, of Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer, and her colleagues studied a set of “multitarget” games that taught children how to first take deep inhalations, then force the breath out, and finally to exhale fully.
For instance, one game used the image of a caterpillar crawling—rising and falling—to teach children the difference between inhalation and exhalation.
The study, published in the journal Chest, included 341 children between the ages of 2 and 6, more than half of whom had been diagnosed with Asthma based on symptoms such as frequent breathing problems and nighttime cough.
After completing the computer games, 78 percent of the children were able to perform spirometry testing. Older children were more successful, but the majority of 2- and 3-year-olds were able to manage the test.
Moreover, Vilozni said, the spirometry results were “reliable,” and able to differentiate cases of more severe Asthma from milder ones. In some cases, she noted, the test spotted airway obstruction in children who had not been showing obvious respiratory symptoms.
“We strongly believe in the value of games for teaching spirometry in preschool-age children, particularly the younger ones,” Vilozni said.
But, the researchers conclude, there remains a need for standardized teaching techniques and parameters for what constitutes healthy and unhealthy lung function in young children.
SOURCE: Chest, September 2005.
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