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The use of serious games and gamification within interventions for obese and overweight children and adolescents : a systematic review

Barton, I. (2015) The use of serious games and gamification within interventions for obese and overweight children and adolescents : a systematic review.

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Abstract:Background: Obesity and overweight have become a common societal problem. The prevalence is rising steadily, especially among children and adolescents. This leads to considerable consequences for the physical as well as for the psychological health. Furthermore, obesity and overweight during youth often lead to obesity and overweight in adulthood. Therefore, effective interventions, especially for children and adolescents, are needed. A recently evolved field of treatment makes use of video games and game elements, called serious games and gamification. This paper aims at defining the state of the art of this new approach concerning the use of serious games and gamification within interventions for obese and overweight children and adolescents. Method: This paper is a systematic review according to the PRISMA-P framework. It makes use of a pre-existing database consisting of 362 interventions about serious games and gamification within health care. The screening processes with item specific criteria leads to a pool of 11 interventions which are included for the data extraction. During this process the interventions are assessed according to six pre-defined criteria. Results: Most of the interventions aim to alter a combination of physical activity and certain psychological aspects, such as intrinsic motivation. For that purpose, most interventions make use of commercially available serious exergames. None of the included studies uses gamification. All interventions, except for one, are categorised as more effective according to the present framework. Conclusions: Serious games, educational as well as exergames, do positively influence psychological aspects such as intrinsic motivation by combining serious issues with gaming. By that, the other aspects, physical activity as well as diet and nutrition, also do improve. Therapeutic serious games can be adjusted individually to the user. That aspect could serve as an important advantage. The effectiveness of games in general is promising. But it is important to involve guidelines with reference to the frequency of usage of the intervention elements to maintain the participation of the users.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68292
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