A Trading-card Game Teaching About Host Defence

Objectives: To heighten the understanding of host-disease interactions by adolescents and young adults, using a trading card game format.

Design: A trading card game was developed in which paired students attack one another with pathogens or parry those attacks with appropriate defences. Twenty-five infectious pathogens or cancers, 30 defence agents and 6 health status modifying conditions were included.

Setting: A middle school, upper school and medical school in the United States.

Subjects: 8th grade, 10th grade and first year medical students.

Results: The game was tested using pre-test/post-test evaluations in 8th graders, 10th graders and medical students. Factual information, pathogen-organ specificity, and general concepts were tested. There was a significant increase in test scores, from 39% to 58% correct in the 8th graders (P < 0.0001), from 47% to 59% among 10th graders (P = 0.0007), and from 80% to 88% (P = 0.049) among the medical students. Responses to control questions unrelated to the game did not improve.

Conclusion: An interactive trading card format is a useful method for conveying information about host defence.