Using Digital Games as a Strategic Tool to Reinforce Positive Health Behaviour

Abstract

Technology plays a vital role in the healthcare industry. Consequently, digital healthcare is gaining momentum, which brings forth the usage of gamification for predictive/preventive care, diagnosis, therapy and palliative care for patients and non-patients. Gamification is also applied for educational purposes, patient monitoring, medical adherence and professional training in the health sector. Digital health games promise to address a broad audience with quick and easy accessibility but are not competent enough to ensure users' long-term motivation and engagement. This paper focuses on the classification of digital health games, their implementation areas, the strategies and factors that contribute to successful digital health games and their effects on health behaviour change.

Keywords

• digital health game
• gamification
• well-being
• chronic diseases
• health behaviour

Olumlu Sağlık Davranışı Geliştirmede Stratejik Bir Araç Olarak Dijital Oyunların Kullanımı

Abstract

Teknoloji, sağlık sektöründe hayati bir rol oynamaktadır. Bunun sonucunda dijital sağlık hizmetleri ivme kazanmakta ve oyunlaştırmanın teşhis, koruyucu, tedavi edici ve palyatif bakım için hastalar ve hasta olmayanlar için kullanımını gündeme getirmektedir. Oyunlaştırma, sağlık sektöründe eğitim amaçlı, hasta izleme, tıbbi uyum ve mesleki eğitim için de uygulanmaktadır. Dijital sağlık oyunları, hızlı ve kolay erişilebilirlikle geniş bir kitleye hitap edebilir uygulamalar olsalar da henüz kullanıcıların uzun vadeli motivasyonunu ve katılımını sağlayacak kadar yetkin değiller. Bu çalışma dijital sağlık oyunlarının sınıflandırılmasına, uygulama alanlarına, başarılı dijital sağlık oyunlarına katkıda bulunan stratejilere ve faktörlere ve bunların sağlık davranışı değişikliği üzerindeki etkilerine odaklanmaktadır.

Keywords

• dijital sağlık oyunu
• oyunlaştırma
• iyilik hali
• kronik hastalıklar
• sağlık davranışı

References

1. Brauner, P., Calero Valdez, A., Schroeder, U., & Ziefle, M. (2013). Increase physical fitness and create health awareness through exergames and gamification: The role of individual factors, motivation and acceptance. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lektöre Notes in Bioinformatics), 7946 LNCS, 349–362.
2. Charikleia, P., Antoniou, P., Batsiou, S., Bebetsos, E., & Lymnioudis, A. (2011, October). Exploring the Benefits of Digital Interactive Games on People's Health. In European Conference on Games Based Learning (p. 750). Academic Conferences International Limited.
3. Capgemini. (2018). Digital Health Transforming Healthcare. https://www.capgemini.com/be-en/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2018/10/Digital-health-final-paper-22.10.pdf
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, June 6). Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Diseases. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved July 8, 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/costs/index.htm#:~:text=Nothing Chen, Y., & Pu, P. (2014). HealthyTogether: Exploring social incentives for mobile fitness applications. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 25–34.
5. Christie, B., and Trout, J. (2007). Rather than contribute to a sedentary lifestyle, these games demand activity from the players. Interactive Video Games in Physical Education, 78(5), 29–45.
6. Cugelman, B. (2013). Gamification: What it is and why it matters to Digital Health Behavior Change Developers. JMIR Serious Games, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/games.3139
7. Deloitte. (2016). Boosting Patient Empowerment and Motivational Pull Achieving the Next Level in a Gamified Health Environment. In Monitor Deloitte (Issue 02). Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/strategy-operations/monitor-deloitte/topic/monitor-deloitte.html
8. Esposito, N., 2005. A short and simple definition of what a videogame is. Available from http:// www.utc.fr/~nesposit/publications/esposito2005definition.pdf.

9. Hall, A. K., & Marston, H. R. (2014). Gaming and older adults in the digital age of healthcare. Handbook of Smart Homes, Health Care and Well-Being, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01904-8_55-1
10. Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014). Does gamification work? - A literature review of empirical studies on gamification. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 3025–3034. https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2014.377
11. Hartin, P. J., Nugent, C. D., McClean, S. I., Cleland, I., Tschanz, J. T., Clark, C., & Norton, M. C. (2014). Encouraging behavioral change via everyday technologies to reduce risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 8868, 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13105-4_9/COVER/
12. Hazar, Z. and M. Hazar, 2017. Digital game addiction scale for children. Journal of Human Sciences, 14(1): 203-216. Hu, R., Fico, G., Cancela, J., & Arredondo, M. T. (2014). Gamification system to support family-based behavioral interventions for childhood obesity. 2014 IEEE-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics, BHI 2014, 181–184. https://doi.org/10.1109/BHI.2014.6864334
13. Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K.-A., Staneva, A., Stoyanov, S., & Hides, L. (2016). Gamification for Health and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Internet Interventions, 6, 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002
14. Knöll, M., & Moar, M. (2012). The space of digital health games. International Journal of Computer Science in Sport, 11(1), 61–72. Li, L. (2021). What Games Should You Play For Better Brain Health? Being Patient - Alzheimer’s News, Advice, Stories & Support. https://www.beingpatient.com/games-brain-health/
15. Liu, E.Z.F. and P.-K. Chen, 2013. The effect of game-based learning on students' learning performance in science learning–a case of conveyance go. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 103: 1044-1051.Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.430.
16. Madeira, R. N., Costa, L., & Postolache, O. (2014). PhysioMate-Pervasive physical rehabilitation based on NUI and gamification. EPE 2014 - Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference and Exposition on Electrical and Power Engineering, 612–616. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEPE.2014.6969982
17. Malaka, R. (2014). How Computer Games Can Improve Your Health and Fitness. In: Göbel, S., Wiemeyer, J. (eds) Games for Training, Education, Health and Sports. GameDays 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8395. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05972-3_1
18. Martins, T., Carvalho, V., & Soares, F. (2015). A serious game for rehabilitation of neurological disabilities: Premilinary study. Proceedings - 2015 IEEE 4th Portuguese Meeting on Bioengineering, ENBENG 2015. https://doi.org/10.1109/ENBENG.2015.7088843
19. Maturo, A. F., & Moretti, V. (2018). Digital Health and the Gamification of Life: How Apps can Promote a Positive Medicalization. Emerald Publishing Limited.
20. Mestress, J.-C. (2017). State of the Art of Healthcare: The Cubism Period. In L. Menvielle, A.-F. Audrain-Pontevia, & W. Menvielle (Eds.), Digitization of Healthcare: New Challenges and Opportunities (pp. 3–21). essay, Palgrave Macmillan.
21. Michmizos, K. P., & Krebs, H. I. (2012). Serious Games for the Pediatric Anklebot. 2012 4th IEEE RAS & EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), 1710–1714. https://doi.org/10.1109/BioRob.2012.6290706
22. Miller, A. S., Cafazzo, J. A., & Seto, E. (2014). A Game Plan: Gamification Design Principles in mHealth Applications for Chronic Disease Management. Health Informatics Journal, 22(2), 184–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458214537511
23. Miller, A. S., Cafazzo, J. A., & Seto, E. (2016). A game plan: Gamification design principles in mHealth applications for chronic disease management. Health Informatics Journal, 22(2), 184–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458214537511
24. Nirmal, R., Yun, C., Le, M., Paripoonnanonda, P., & Yi, J. (2013). Digital health game on cervical health and its effect on American women's cervical cancer knowledge. IEEE Consumer Electronics Society's International Games Innovations Conference, IGIC, 191–198. https://doi.org/10.1109/IGIC.2013.6659134
25. Orji, R., & Moffatt, K. (2016). Persuasive Technology for Health and Wellness: State of The Art and Emerging Trends. Health Informatics Journal, 24(1), 66–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458216650979
26. Parisod, H. (2018). A Health game as an intervention to support tobacco-related health literacy among early adolescents. In Turun yliopiston julkaisuja.Sarja D.Medica-Odontologica: Vol. Doctor (Issue 1357). https://www.utupub.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/144897/AnnalesD1357Parisod.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
27. Pereira, C. v., Figueiredo, G., Esteves, M. G. P., & de Souza, J. M. (2014). We4Fit: A game with a purpose for behavior change. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE 18th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, CSCWD 2014, 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1109/CSCWD.2014.6846821
28. Prada-Dominguez, E., Valdivia-Trujillo, S., Uribe-Quevedo, A., & Perez-Gutierrez, B. (2014). Lower member complimentary exercise gaming app. 2014 IEEE Colombian Conference on Communications and Computing, COLCOM 2014 - Conference Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1109/COLCOMCON.2014.6860420
29. Sardi, L., Idri, A., & Fernández-Alemán, J. L. (2017). Gamified mobile blood donation applications. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 10208 LNCS, 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56148-6_14/TABLES/2
30. Schonauer, C., Pintaric, T., Kaufmann, H., Jansen-Kosterink, S., & Vollenbroek-Hutten, M. (2011). Chronic pain rehabilitation with a serious game using multimodal input. 2011 International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation, ICVR 2011. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICVR.2011.5971855
31. Serious games. Department of Education and Training Victoria. (2017). Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/learningdev/Pages/expired/ techgames.aspx Stone, J. (2020). Digital Games. In J. Stone and C. E. Schaefer (Eds.), Game play therapy: therapeutic use of games with children and adolescents (pp. 99–120). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
32. Tomaselli, P. J., Papanagnou, D., Karademos, J. E., Teixeira, E., & Zhang, X. C. (2018). Gamification of Hospital Utilization: Incorporating Cost-consciousness in Daily Practices. Cureus, 10(8). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.3094
33. Victoria State Government. (2017). Serious Games. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/learningdev/Pages/expired/techgames.aspx
34. Wallenburg, I., & Bal, R. (2018). The Gaming Healthcare Practitioner: How Practices of Datafication and Gamification Reconfigure Care. Health Informatics Journal, 25(3), 549–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458218796608
35. Wattanasoontorn, V., Boada, I., García, R., & Sbert, M. (2013). Serious Games for Health. Entertainment Computing, 4(4), 231–247. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2013.09.002
36. Woolf, S. H. (2008). The Power of Prevention and What It Requires. JAMA, 299(20), 2437. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.299.20.2437 World Health Organization. (n.d.). Constitution of the World Health Organization. World Health Organization. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution
37. Zhao, Z., Ali Etemad, S., & Arya, A. (2016). Gamification of exercise and fitness using wearable activity trackers. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 392, 233–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24560-7_30/COVER/