JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Community exergaming may help older adults remain physically active by combining movement, enjoyment, and social interaction, but less is known about whether benefits are maintained after supervised delivery ends in real-world community settings.

Objective:

This study evaluated immediate and maintenance outcomes of the International-Singapore Intergenerational National Games (I-SING), a community-delivered exergaming programme for older adults in Singapore, with a focus on positive mental health, intrinsic motivation, habit strength, and implementation-relevant determinants of physical activity maintenance.

Methods:

We conducted a multi-wave observational evaluation from 2025 to 2026 among 280 older adults recruited from 14 Senior Activity Centres/Active Ageing Centres in Singapore. Assessments were completed at baseline (T0), immediately after an 8-week supervised training phase (T1), after a 4-week unsupervised free-play phase (T2), and at later follow-up for selected measures (T3). Immediate within-person changes were examined using paired t tests. Maintenance across waves was assessed using adjusted linear mixed-effects models controlling for age, gender, and participation year. Exploratory analyses examined whether COM-B-aligned capability, opportunity, and motivation composites were associated with physical activity trajectories.

Results:

Participants had a mean age of 72.5 (SD 6.2) years, and 216/280 (77.1%) were women. From T0 to T1, positive mental health increased from 55.19 to 57.59 (Cohen dz=0.28; P<.001), intrinsic motivation increased from 5.94 to 6.29 (dz=0.40; P<.001), and habit strength increased from 3.34 to 3.81 (dz=0.42; P<.001). In adjusted mixed models, habit strength remained higher than baseline at T2 (β=0.362, P=.005), and intrinsic motivation remained higher at T2 (β=0.397, P=.001) and T3 (β=0.305, P=.044). Positive mental health improved immediately after supervised training but was not maintained at T2. Among the COM-B domains, only opportunity was associated with greater immediate post-training physical activity improvement (time × opportunity interaction β=26.464, P=.026), with no evidence of a sustained interaction at T2.

Conclusions:

In this real-world community exergaming programme, the most durable post-training effects were intrinsic motivation and habit strength rather than broader psychosocial well-being. Continued participation after supervision is reduced may depend less on enjoyment alone than on opportunity-related supports such as access, reminders, routines, and social facilitation.