“It’s All in the Game” A board game to facilitate disease-related conversations between children with a chronic disease and their peers

Abstract

Communication about chronic disease is challenging for affected children and their peers. However, peers play a crucial role in the quality of life, reduction of disease burden, and adherence to treatment regimens of children with chronic disease. Procedural rhetoric in games shows great promise to facilitate behaviour change leading to better communication between children with chronic diseases. We followed a user-centric design process to develop “It’s All in the Game”, exploring the value of procedural rhetoric to foster disease-related communication between children with cystic fibrosis—a chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system—and their peers. Our work contributes to game design by showing an avenue to shape communication between peers and children with a chronic disease to potentially reduce disease burden and increase their quality of life.