Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Mar 12, 2020
Date Accepted: Jun 25, 2020
Mapping behavioral health serious game interventions for adults with chronic illness: a scoping review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Serious games for health are increasingly being used to address health outcomes in patients with chronic illnesses. These studies vary in their study designs, patient populations, frameworks, outcome variables, and degree of specificity of the serious game intervention.
Objective:
The purpose of this scoping review is to clarify the conceptual features of the existing research related to serious games designed to improve cognitive and behavioral outcomes in adults with chronic illness.
Methods:
We applied the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis for scoping reviews (PRISM-ScR) methodology including an a priori research question. We searched four electronic databases to identify articles published through November 2019. Inclusion criteria encompassed (1) adults age 18 years or older; (2) patients with a chronic illness diagnosis, (3) a serious game intervention; and (4) defined patient outcomes that assess patients’ behavioral, cognitive, and/or health outcomes.
Results:
Of the 3,305 articles identified, 38 studies are included in the review. We charted and analyzed the theoretical frameworks, key concepts, and outcome variables of these studies with summaries of features across articles. The majority of studies used a randomized controlled trial design (61%), included a custom serious game intervention (56%), and lacked a theoretical framework (66%). Common outcome variables included quality of life (42%), mood (37%), symptoms (32%), cognitive function (32%), and physical activity (24%). Key differences between studies included whether or not serious games were aiming to: train vs teach patients, be widely accessible vs tailored interventions, or replace vs complement current treatments.
Conclusions:
This scoping review defines the current landscape of research in serious games for health research targeting behavioral and cognitive outcomes in adults with chronic disease. Studies address a variety of patient populations and diverse patient outcomes. Researchers wanting to build on the current research should integrate theoretical frameworks into the design of the intervention and trial to more clearly articulate the active ingredients and mechanisms of serious games.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.