Supporting sustainable development goals through a gamified mHealth application for people with albinism in Africa

Abstract

People with albinism (PWA) often face discrimination due to people being superstitious and believing in myths. These problems occur especially frequently in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the prevalence of PWA is very high. PWA additionally suffers from a variety of health issues like extreme sensitivity to the sun or impaired vision. Affected people often do not know enough about their condition or are not able to get physical and mental support to enhance their situations and current mHealth solutions do not cover this area and topic yet. Therefore a low-fidelity prototype was developed in cooperation with six experts including two people affected by albinism. The prototype includes 38 requirements that were identified within a user-centered design approach. The main goal of this gamified application is to empower PWA by educating them about all aspects of their condition, associated myths, raising awareness about the importance of appropriate protection, and building their resilience, self-confidence, and coping skills.