JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Combining physical, motor, and cognitive exercises is expected to be effective to attenuate age-related declines of brain and cognition in older adults. This can be done either by conventional interventions or by exergames. The present paper aimed to determine whether conventional combined training and exergame interventions are two comparable ways for delivering combined training. Twenty-four studies on conventional training and 23 studies on exergames were selected and compared A common framework was used to analyze both types of combined training interventions. Our analysis showed that conventional combined training interventions were more effective than separated physical and motor training to improve brain and cognition, while their superiority over cognitive training alone remains to be confirmed. Exergames scarcely led to superior cognitive benefits than those observed after physical, motor or cognitive training alone. Thus, though both conventional training interventions and exergames allowed delivering combined training programs, they are not two facets of the same coin. Further studies, more theoretically grounded, are necessary to determine whether interventions delivered via exergames may lead to superior benefits than conventional, separated and combined training interventions.