Quiz aims to help understand the fear of finding out medical conditions

An online quiz has been launched to help understand what lies behind the fear of finding out about medical conditions – or ‘FOFO’.

The Patients Association teamed up with biopharmaceutical company, AbbVie, to collect data which could help them discover the physiological barriers that cause people to delay seeking medical advice.

The quiz, which was developed by Live: Lab, features a series of quick-fire questions about the factors that influence people’s decision to get help.

Depending on answers given, players are presented with their personal health fear ‘gremlin’, a representation of the severity of their ‘FOFO’, along with the chance to virtually ‘crush’ it.

Max Scott-Slade, founder of ‘Crush Your FOFO’ developers Glitcher, told Digital Health News that a game platform was chosen as it attracted a “large age range”.

Scott-Slade also said the aim of the game was to “try to collect data about how people perceive their own health”.

By making the game “more approachable” and having a user-friendly format, Scott said he hoped it would allow gamers to answer questions honestly and create “usable data”.

The game follows research carried out by AbbVie that involved more than 2,000 people, who were questioned on their medical habits. You can watch a video on how the game was made below.

The survey revealed that 61% admitted they would consider delaying making a GP appointment for fear of being told they have a serious illness.

A further 32% admitted they would consider putting off making a doctor’s appointment because they were worried they would be pressured into making lifestyle changes.

Scott-Slade suggested it would be interesting to see how the game added to the research.

“I think if it helps people just even a little bit, I would be happy with that,” Scott-Slade said.

“If we could help create a data set which addresses the issue of FOFO, then I would say I have done my job.”

‘Crush your FOFO’ is not the first medical-based game to hit the market.

Back in November 2016, Digital Health News reported on how 2.4 million people had downloaded a mobile phone game designed to fight dementia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmKQoI4hUYU&feature=youtu.be