Introduction: The term "Serious Game" refers to a type of game which its main purpose is more than entertainment. As choosing healthier foods and reducing the consumption of processed foods lead to a healthier life, having accurate information about nutrition can improve the nutritional knowledge and practice of target populations, such as children. In this term, serious games can be defined as promising and innovative games using modern information technologies to increase nutritional knowledge among individuals. Therefore, the present study is designed to review the impact of serious games on children's nutritional knowledge.
Methods: The present study was a brief review study designed in 2022. The search was conducted through electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, and google scholar with the keywords “Serious Games”, and “Nutrition”. Inclusion criteria included articles that examined the impact of serious mobile games on developing nutrition knowledge and healthy eating habits after 2013.
Results: According to the study inclusion and exclusion criteria, 364 articles were included and finally, 8 studies were reviewed to achieve the goals of the present study. As an overview, the studies indicated that digital nutrition information was commonly sent to the population through social media and television, and non-digital information was mainly sent through schools and parents. Beyond the role of any technologies in nutritional education, studies showed the impact of serious games on more informed food choices and increased fruit and vegetable consumption in the target group. In general, serious games by influencing children's nutritional knowledge can play a significant role in promoting healthy eating behavior among them. And be used as an effective tool for learning nutrition knowledge and forming healthy eating habits.
Conclusion: According to the importance of healthy nutrition for children, having accurate nutritional knowledge and practice is a necessary issue. In this field, serious games seem a useful tool; however, further investigations are required to determine this educational method's features, benefits, barriers, limitations, and disadvantages.
Keywords: Serious Game, Knowledge, Nutrition Education, Children