No abstract

Driven by an increase in the availability of cheap low-cost mobile phones and a jump in the number of telecom subscribers, the African gaming world is booming. Most importantly, it has opened an opportunity for rural communities to have an almost identical mobile phone experience than people living in urban areas. It has also opened an opportunity to leverage this high penetration of mobile devices to design mobile-based applications such as mobile serious games. The latter assists individuals living in these communities to modify, change or shape their behaviors and attitudes desirably. This paper reviews mobile serious games in healthcare education, especially those intended to improve health literacy in rural Africa. The challenges and issues encountered in the design and use of persuasive mobile games as a tool can promote behavior change among people living in the rural African communities.

Background: Since the launch of mobile phones three decade ago, the latter have been used to support healthcare systems through various mobile health (m-health) applications. In recent years, multiple mobile phone-based health projects and applications have emerged. Despite the great enthusiasm around m-health, few studies have examined the use of cell phones to improve health literacy in Africa. This paper aims to review studies related to the contribution of mobile technologies in improving health literacy in rural areas of Africa. Methods: We performed a four-step systematic review to identify relevant publications: (1) Database selection, (2) Keyword search, (3) Study selection and (4) Data extraction. In addition, manual searching methods were used to find keywords related to m-health initiatives in Africa. Discussion: Our search resulted in the identification of 38 studies and initiatives related to health literacy and mobile technologies in Africa. However, few of these studies focused on health literacy and mobile technologies in rural areas of Africa. We also found that m-health initiatives to date have not been inclusive, with very few integrating local languages in the development of m-health solutions. Our findings thus point to various potential avenues to be investigated in the future.