Conference Program

In Italy, blood and plasma donation occurs exclusively on a voluntary and unpaid basis; however, the donor population is ageing and generational renewal remains insufficient (ISS - Centro Nazionale Sangue, 2023). New donors under 50 are less likely to continue donating in the months following their first donation (Bilancini et al., 2022), making early-stage awareness initiatives particularly valuable. Volunteering and donation represent concrete expressions of altruism and pro-social behaviour, dimensions that can be cultivated since childhood (House & Tomasello, 2018; House et al., 2020). Play has long been recognised as a means to foster empathy, cooperation, and sensitivity toward the common good (Orlick, 1983). Game-based pedagogical approaches have demonstrated effectiveness in promoting pro-social behaviour (Bilancini et al., 2023), engaging both young students and their families while remaining low-cost, scalable, and amenable to follow-up (Nesti, 2017; Plass & Homer, 2015; Dix, 2019).

The primary innovation of this research lies in assessing a game-based intervention in the context of pro-social behaviours related to blood and plasma donation. While prior work has examined such approaches in areas such as sustainable water use (Bilancini et al., 2021), no experimental study to date has focused on their impact on donation-related pro-social behaviours.

This paper presents a pilot randomised controlled study testing the effectiveness of the CapitanAVIS project, a ludic-educational intervention centred on a collaborative board game conveying key information about blood compatibility and the collective donation system, aimed at promoting donation culture and pro-social attitudes among primary school students in the Versilia area, province of Lucca, Italy. Two research questions guided the study: (1) what is the effect of a board game activity, compared to drawing-based activities, on children's knowledge of blood donation?; (2) what is the effect of the two conditions on pro-social attitudes in children aged 8–10?

Approximately 680 students from grades 3–5 across 22 classes were randomly assigned to a treatment group (T), engaging with the CapitanAVIS board game in school and family settings, or a control group (C), involved in drawing and narrative activities on the donation theme. Data were collected at three time points, W0 (March 2022), W1 (April 2022), and W2 (May–June 2022), assessing playful habits, pro-social attitudes, and blood donation knowledge.

Results indicate that knowledge of blood donation increased in both groups, with greater gains in the treatment group. Pro-social attitudes and allocation behaviour did not differ substantially between conditions, with no systematic behavioural change over time and considerable inter-individual variability. Exploratory analyses suggest a modest positive association between playful habits and pro-social attitudes. These findings provide preliminary evidence supporting game-based interventions for public health knowledge dissemination in school settings, and confirm the feasibility of the experimental design for future large-scale implementations.