Objectives To investigate the 5-year prevalence of patients admitted to public inpatient care units due to a mental disorder, stratifying them by age group and diagnosis, and to assess trends of admissions over this time period in Porto Alegre. Methods All admissions to the public mental health care system regulated by the city-owned electronic system Administração Geral dos Hospitais (AGHOS) were included in the analysis. The total population size was obtained by estimations of Fundação de Economia e Estatística (FEE). General information about 5-year prevalence of inpatient admissions, time-series trends e prevalence by age groups and diagnosis were presented. Results There were 32,608 admissions over the 5-year period analyzed. The overall prevalence of patients was 1.62% among the total population, 0.01% among children, 1.12% among adolescents, 2.28% among adults and 0.93% among the elderly. The most common diagnosis was drug-related, followed by mood, alcohol-related and psychotic disorders. There was a linear trend showing an increase in the number of admissions from 2013 to the midst of 2014, which dropped in 2015. Conclusions Admissions due to mental disorders are relatively common, mainly among adults and related to drug use and mood disorders. Time trends varied slightly over the 5 years. Prevalence rates in real-world settings might be useful for policymakers interested in planning the public mental health system in large Brazilian cities.

This paper presents a method to evaluate usability and gameplay efficiency for educational games developed for children undergoing cancer treatment, as well as a case study involving the game “Corrida Gramatical”. The methodology of this paper consists of the use of tablets by patients aged 10 to 15 years old to evaluate and quantify the usability and gameplay of the game, while the process is documented through non-participant observation, a System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The proposed method has proved to be supportive in the evaluation of existing educational games, considering the participants of the research, as well as in the improvement of the game by analyzing the flaws identified in the game design. For future studies, we intend to change the inclusion criteria to select a larger group of patients and reaffirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The use of information communication technologies (ICT) in education brings up new possibilities of promoting learning and health experiences. In this sense, education contexts of the 21st century must consider these two areas of knowledge, especially their integration. This article presents learning practices developed with mobile devices and games in order to improve learning and well-being in children and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment in a non-formal educational setting. The methodology is based on qualitative case studies with content-based data analyses, involving informal interviews and observation methods. The study considers data from five patients who participated in the research between 2015 and 2019. The results demonstrate a positive influence of the practices with mobile technologies and games in terms of learning and in the well-being experience of patients during the treatment.

A partir da hipótese de que a interação baseada em jogos digitais educativos contribui para a aprendizagem da matemática, este artigo relata a aplicação de um estudo-piloto que associou os jogos digitais educativos, no caso o Erudito, para auxílio no processo de ensino e de aprendizagem da matemática nos anos finais do Ensino Fundamental. A pesquisa realizada caracteriza-se como qualitativa e quantitativa, utilizando-se do método de estudo de caso. Os resultados do estudo-piloto, no qual deu-se o uso de jogos digitais educativos, demonstraram que a utilização dos mesmos pode contribuir na educação como ferramentas de ensino e de aprendizagem, uma vez que permitem ao professor perceber a efetividade de sua prática, podendo avaliar os resultados antes e depois da prática educativa.

O uso de redes sociais associados a estratégias de gamificação podem auxiliar no processo de aprendizagem. Este estudo parte da hipótese de que uma rede social educacional gamificada potencializa o engajamento e a motivação dos sujeitos em práticas pedagógicas que envolvem a rede. Este artigo propõe um modelo de gamificação aplicada a redes sociais educacionais, com o intuito de potencializar a motivação e o engajamento dos alunos em práticas pedagógicas envolvendo os recursos da rede. O estudo faz uso do método Design Science Research (DSR), para construção do artefato proposto. A pesquisa tem caráter qualitativo, em que foram avaliadas as técnicas de gamificação propostas pelo modelo (artefato), tendo como estudo de caso sua aplicação na Rede Social Educacional Teia. Com base em dois experimentos realizados junto a um curso de graduação e a alunos de ensino médio participantes de um projeto junto a universidade, os resultados da análise da pesquisa evidenciaram que a rede Teia gamificada favoreceu a motivação e o engajamento dos alunos, melhorando a experiência destes durante as atividades realizadas. Palavras-chave: Gamificação. Redes sociais educacionais. Jogos digitais.