Background: Oral health is a determinant of overall well-being and quality of life. Individual behaviors, such as oral hygiene and dietary habits, play a central role in oral health. Motivation is a crucial factor in promoting behavior change, and gamification offers a means to boost health-related knowledge and encourage positive health behaviors. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the impact of gamification and its mechanisms on oral health care of children and adolescents. Methods: A systematic search covered multiple databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, ScienceDirect, and LILACS. Gray literature, conference proceedings, and WHOQOL internet resources were considered. Studies from January 2013 to December 2022 were included, except for PubMed/MEDLINE, which was searched until January 2023. A total of 15 studies were selected following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. The eligibility criteria were peer-reviewed, full-text, and empirical research related to gamification in oral health care, reports of impact, and oral health care outcomes. The exclusion criteria encompassed duplicate articles; unavailable full texts; nonoriginal articles; and non–digital game–related, non–oral health–related, and protocol studies. Selected studies were scrutinized for gamification mechanisms and outcomes. Two main questions were raised: “Does gamification in oral health care impact oral health?” and “Does oral health care gamification enhance health promotion and literacy?” The PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) framework guided the scoping review. Results: Initially, 617 records were obtained from 5 databases and gray literature sources. After applying exclusion criteria, 15 records were selected. Sample size in the selected studies ranged from 34 to 190 children and adolescents. A substantial portion (11/15, 73%) of the studies discussed oral self-care apps supported by evidence-based oral health. The most clearly defined data in the apps were “brushing time” (11/11, 100%) and “daily amount brushing” (10/11, 91%). Most studies (11/15, 73%) mentioned oral health care behavior change techniques and included “prompt intention formation” (11/26, 42%), “providing instructions” (11/26, 42%), “providing information on the behavior-health link” (10/26, 38%), “providing information on consequences” (9/26, 35%), “modeling or demonstrating behavior” (9/26, 35%), “providing feedback on performance” (8/26, 31%), and “providing contingent rewards” (8/26, 31%). Furthermore, 80% (12/15) of the studies identified game design elements incorporating gamification features in oral hygiene applications. The most prevalent gamification features were “ideological incentives” (10/12, 83%) and “goals” (9/16, 56%), which were found in user-specific and challenge categories, respectively. Conclusions: Gamification in oral health care shows potential as an innovative approach to promote positive health behaviors. Most studies reported evidence-based oral health and incorporated oral health care behavior change techniques.

Health Related Quality of Life has been used in medical research for more than twenty years, being progressively accepted during the last decade as an important patient reported outcome. Considering the multidimensional approach involved in Health Related Quality of Life assessment, instrument applicability and cultural adaptation must be tested for each population. In order to select the most appropriate instrument for Head and Neck cancer patients, two major Health Related Quality of Life specific questionnaires for Head and Neck cancer patients were compared. Conceptual differences, psychometric characteristics, scores, reliability, construct validity and sensitivity to symptomatology, tumour location, tumour size were analyzed.

Population ageing is increasing the number of people annually diagnosed with cancer worldwide, once most types of tumours are age-dependent. High-quality healthcare in geriatric oncology requires a multimodal approach and should take into account stratified patient outcomes based on factors other than chronological age in order to develop interventions able to optimize oncology care.

A importância das doenças oncológicas como causa de morbilidade e mortalidade está em crescimento, sendo reconhecido o seu impacto social e peso global pelos custos económicos e sociais envolvidos na sua prevenção, tratamento e reabilitação. As patologias oncológicas de cabeça e pescoço representam um dos seis tumores malignos mais prevalentes em todo o mundo, com um valor estimado de 900.000 novos casos diagnosticados anualmente em escala mundial. Estes doentes oncológicos apresentam deterioração de funções básicas que, quando percepcionadas, têm impacto negativo na sua Qualidade de Vida. Um registo oncológico adequado permite uma análise mais rigorosa dos resultados obtidos na avaliação da Qualidade de Vida Relacionada com a Saúde. Este estudo incluiu 380 doentes oncológicos de cabeça e pescoço e demonstra que as mulheres apresentam resultados de Qualidade de Vida globalmente inferiores. Salienta-se ainda a importância do diagnóstico precoce em oncologia, que se relaciona frequentemente com melhores scores e conclui-se que a localização do tumor tem impacto sobre a autopercepção de Qualidade de Vida. Os valores de Qualidade de Vida Relacionada com a Saúde devem ser interpretados à luz das variáveis sociodemográficas e clínicas, para melhor se avaliar a Patologia Oncológica de Cabeça e Pescoço numa perspectiva epidemiológica no sentido de melhor compreender o processo saúde - doença.

The perception that an individual holds about his place in life, which depends upon his culture and values, defines this individual's quality of life (QoL). When applied in a health context, this is known as: health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The assessment of HRQoL is a medical goal; it is used in clinical research, medical practice, health-related economic studies and in planning health management measures and strategies. Obtaining a patient self-assessment with QoL measuring instruments on the platform developed in this project, through friendly software, easy for the user to adapt to, aids the study, promotes the creation of databases, and accelerates its statistical treatment. The possibility of graphically representing results that physician needs to analyse, immediately after the answer collection, makes this assessment a diagnosis instrument ready to be used routinely in clinical practice.