Mediterranean Challenge: a pilot study on the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary changes in Mediterranean Diet literacy of an educational board game among first-year university students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14306/renhyd.31.1.2936%20Keywords:
Nutrition Education, Mediterranean Diet, Health Literacy, Feasibility Studies, Experimental GamesAbstract
Introduction: Declining adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) among young Spaniards and the limited application of nutritional knowledge support exploring innovative educational formats. Mediterranean Challenge is a trivia-style board game developed within the PRIMA-Tool4MEDLife project, with content mapped a priori to the Lit-MEDiet framework. This pilot study evaluated its feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary signals of change in perceived MD literacy.
Methods: Quasi-experimental pre-post pilot study with two arms (Mediterranean Challenge and control) among first-year nursing students at Ramon Llull University. The intervention comprised four weekly sessions of 30-45 minutes. Recruitment, retention, and attendance were recorded; acceptability was assessed with the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) and perceived MD literacy with Lit-MEDiet before (T0) and after (T1) the intervention.
Results: Of 51 participants, 54.9% completed T1 and 43.1% provided matched data. All 18 intervention participants with available data attended the four sessions. IMI scores were high for Interest/Enjoyment (6.21±0.80) and Value/Usefulness (5.97±1.05). In the full matched intervention sample (n=15), the change in Lit-MEDiet was not significant (p=0.461). In the exploratory sensitivity sample (n=11), after excluding four flagged responses, Lit-MEDiet decreased from 2.04±0.50 to 1.53±0.45 (p=0.010; dz=−0.95), indicating lower perceived difficulty. The control group showed no significant changes.
Conclusions: Mediterranean Challenge was feasible and acceptable in a university classroom, with moderate retention. The change in perceived MD literacy was not significant in the full matched sample; the signal observed in the sensitivity analysis depends on the handling of flagged responses. As a non-randomised pilot, these findings do not support inferences about efficacy and inform the design of a randomised confirmatory trial.
Funding: Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), Horizon Europe Programme (Tool4MEDLife project).
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Copyright (c) 2020 Maria Giulia Casucci, Marta Segura, Júlia Muñoz-Martínez, Begoña Caneda-Ferrón, Miriam Rodríguez-Monforte, Carlos Bolívar, Elisabeth Diana Elsner Asper, Elena Carrillo-Álvarez
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