Gamification of dementia education: Using a board game to increase knowledge about dementia inequalities
Mark Gabbay

Date and Time

Thursday, November 12, 2026, 3:15 PM - 3:30 PM

Theme / Track

Policy, advocacy, planning and change

Presentation Format

Concurrent

Background: Awareness and in-depth knowledge about dementia within the current and future care workforce is low and needs improving. This widespread inadequate knowledge about dementia among care and key-workers is an important barrier to accessing and delivering quality care. To begin or to supplement the process of targeted dementia education, this four-UK-nation mixed method study aimed to explore the impact of playing our recently co-produced dementia inequalities board game, upon knowledge about dementia and associated inequalities, among university students, the health and social care workforce, and public sector staff. Methods: Undergraduate and postgraduate students in nursing, psychology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, orthoptics, radiography, social work, radiotherapy and oncology across seven Universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; plus health and social care professionals including residential care home staff in England and Scotland; and public sector staff including the police force and fire service, participated in 1-hour game play workshops playing the Dementia Inequalities Game. They completed a brief knowledge questionnaire before and after game-play. Changes in before and after workshop dementia knowledge questionnaire scores were analysed using paired samples t-tests Open-ended questions were analysed using wordcloud2 in R. Results: 750 participants played the game in 95 workshops and completed data collection. Playing the Dementia Inequalities Game significantly improved knowledge about dementia (p<.001) and dementia-related inequalities (p<.001). Conclusions: The Dementia Inequalities Game is an effective educational tool to significantly increase knowledge about dementia and dementia-related inequalities. Participation proved popular across multiple workforce sectors in health and social care, including the future workforce.

Keywords

Dementia, Education and Training, Implementation, Innovation

Authors

Dr Clarissa Giebel Snr Research Fellow NIHR ARCNWC and Dept Primary care and Mental Health, University of Liverpool England
Dr Rosalie Ashworth Enabling Research in Care Homes (ENRICH) Network Scotland
Dr Oladayo Bifarin School of Nursing and Advanced Practice, Liverpool John Moore&#039;s University
Dr Helen Marshall School of Allied Health Professions and Nursing University of Liverpool England
Dr Emma Law Enabling Research in Care Homes (ENRICH) Network Scotland