Speaker

Presentation Info

Title

Strengthening Informed Decision-making and Choice of Care During Early Pregnancy Loss in Germany: Co-creative Pre-development of the Serious Game for Health CALMDECIDE

Summary

Background: Early pregnancy loss affects up to 20% of confirmed pregnancies and places a substantial emotional and psychosocial burden on women and families. Despite growing visibility through social media narratives, this attention rarely translates into informed choice, access to evidence-based information, or empowerment in care. In German outpatient settings, the time between diagnosis and intervention is often extremely short, frequently without midwifery support or structured counselling. This creates a critical gap in health literacy and shared decision-making. Low-threshold digital tools may offer a timely and accessible solution. Objective: To present the participatory preparatory phase of CALMDECIDE, a Serious Game for Health designed to support informed decision-making, health literacy, and self-efficacy immediately after miscarriage diagnosis. Methods: An interdisciplinary team (midwifery, game development, cultural studies, social work) initiated the project during a Health Care Hackathon in May 2025 and continued development through fourteen co-creative virtual meetings. Participation structures were explicitly defined from the outset. An experience expert joined the team in December 2025. Preparatory work included literature review, analysis of existing Serious Games, qualitative analysis of a counselling conversation, and iterative development of two low-fidelity prototypes tested in six playtests. Preliminary Results: Findings consistently point to a lack of accessible, trustworthy information during the acute post-diagnosis phase. Existing Serious Games informed narrative and interaction design. Qualitative analysis highlighted the importance of emotional validation, belonging, trust in bodily processes, and decelerated decision-making. Playtests indicated clear preferences for calm aesthetics, stepwise engagement, and optional pathways between factual information and narrative guidance. The integration of support services emerged as essential. Relevance and Outlook: CALMDECIDE demonstrates how participatory pre-development can move Games for Health beyond visibility toward meaningful empowerment in women’s health. It establishes a transferable foundation for systematic development and future evaluation within a doctoral research framework, pending further funding.

Keynote

Presentation

GFHEU Year

2026