Effects of a Virtual Interactive System (People’s War Against Pandemic) on Emergency Preparedness for Major Emerging Infectious Diseases Among Adolescents: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: The epidemiological situation of major emerging infectious diseases (MEIDs) continues to be severe. This requires each country and region to be vigilant, strengthen cooperation, and take effective prevention and response measures. This highlights the public's demand for education on health and safety measures. Virtual interactive systems have played a critical role in many fields. Consequently, we designed and developed a virtual interactive system (People's War Against Pandemic) aimed at training the public to respond to MEID outbreaks. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a novel storyline-driven virtual interactive system (People's War Against Pandemic) in enhancing emergency preparedness and infectious disease health literacy among adolescents. Methods: A single-blind (outcome assessors blinded), 2-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial was conducted in a secondary vocational school from October 2023 to December 2023 in Luzhou, Sichuan. A total of 120 adolescents were recruited through on-site recruitment and were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n=60) and the control group (n=60). The intervention group was trained using a virtual interactive system and traditional lectures, whereas the control group received only traditional lectures. Self-reported questionnaires assessing emergency preparedness for MEIDs and infectious disease health literacy were used to evaluate the effect of the virtual interactive system before and after the intervention. Repeated-measures ANOVA was used to scrutinize variations in outcome indicators across time points within and between groups. Results: <.001). A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed significant group, time, and group × time interaction effects in emergency preparedness and infectious disease health literacy scores. Conclusions: The virtual interactive system was effective in improving adolescents' self-reported emergency preparedness and infectious disease health literacy in the face of MEIDs.