Abstract

Background: The opioid crisis has significantly impacted adolescents and their families. This is attributed in part to increased opioid prescriptions in pediatric emergency departments (EDs) due to acute pain conditions and injuries. Although EDs frequently prescribe opioids, no effective preventative interventions have been implemented to educate adolescents and their families on safe opioid use. This study evaluates the MedSMA℞T Families intervention, which consists of an engaging serious game, Adventures in PharmaCity, and a personalized Family Medication Safety Plan (FMSP) with the aim of reducing opioid misuse and promoting opioid medication safety. The MedSMA℞T Families intervention was developed to educate adolescents and adults prescribed opioids on safe practices such as opioid storage and disposal.

Objective: This study aimed to explore and characterize adolescents’ and parents’ experiences and perspectives on implementing the MedSMA℞T Families intervention in the ED to improve opioid education and safety among adolescents.

Methods: A total of 93 participants, including 16 children and 77 parents, were recruited from the pediatric ED at a tertiary academic hospital to play the MedSMA℞T game in the ED. A total of 16 participants, including 8 children and 8 parents, were followed up with interviews to gather qualitative feedback. Participants engaged with the MedSMA℞T game—Adventures in PharmaCity—and the FMSP. Data were collected through gameplay observation and 75-minute semistructured interviews via Zoom. Quantitative in-game data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis with NVivo (version 14; Lumivero).

Results: Parents spent an average of 22.16 (SD 4.97) minutes playing the game, while children spent an average of 21.99 (SD 8.06) minutes. Families appreciated the game’s design and noted usability challenges and suggested enhancements for clearer gameplay instructions. Participants reported increased knowledge of opioid safety, highlighted the importance of communication with health care providers, and a desire for a mobile app to assist with medication management. The FMSP was perceived as valuable for promoting awareness of safe practices and connected well to the knowledge gained from the game.

Conclusions: The MedSMA℞T Families intervention was well received as a beneficial educational tool to educate adolescents and their families on safe opioid use. Additionally, it highlights a clear need for more accessible digital tools to increase opioid education. This feedback indicates a strong interest in improving educational resources to ensure safe opioid management within families.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Notes/Citation Information

© Olufunmilola Abraham, Sara Nadi, Irene Hurst. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games (https://games.jmir.org), 26.06.2025. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Serious Games, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://games.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.2196/68814

Funding Information

The authors thank Tyler J McCarthy for helping with the data collection. Funding for this project was provided by the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP 5129) through a grant to the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UW ICTR). ICTR also received funding from National Institutes of Health National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NIH-NCATS) Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA; 1UL1TR002373).

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