Funding

Food Fight was developed by Clinical Tools, Inc (CTI) with funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Grant #5R44DK108608-04). We gratefully acknowledge this support, which was the sole funding source for this project’s development.

Purpose

Approximately 42.4% of American adults are considered obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30), and nearly 1/3 are overweight (BMI 25 to 29.9). Obesity increases the risk of a number of chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain forms of cancer and is associated with disability and premature death. The population needs to address their food choices and create lifestyle change in order to reverse the trends of obesity.

Impact

Food Fight utilizes two components of behavioral therapy in order to achieve lifestyle change – Refusal Skills Practice and Counter Conditioning. Visual cues and active involvement make the process of selecting healthy foods and resisting unhealthy foods easy and fun. By collecting healthy food and throwing away unhealthy foods in the game, players can take control of their food choices in real life.

No Industry Support

All materials on this website were developed in an industry-fund-free environment. No industry funding was used to create this website or simulation experience.

Dissemination

Clinical Tools, and its gaming division Health Impact Studio, strives to share knowledge gained through the testing and use of its products. You can see our latest conference presentations, as well as our published research articles, at the Health Impact Studio site.

Future Plans

We will continue to research the best approaches to utilizing game-based learning to teach about proper nutritional choices and ways in which serious games can play a part in addressing the obesity epidemic. We envision that Food Fight and similar games can play a large part in this process by leading to consumers making more conscious food choices through repeated game-play.

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