Currently submitted to: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Jan 25, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 27, 2025 - Mar 24, 2025
(currently open for review and needs more reviewers - can you help?)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Exergaming system for exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in heart failure patients: HEFMOB development and usability assessment study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Heart failure is a growing global health concern. Exergaming is a promising alternative to conventional exercise programs for patients with heart failure (HF). However, existing research has limitations, and the integration of exergaming into clinical practice remains challenging.
Objective:
The aims of this study were to design and develop an exergaming prototype (i.e., HEFMOB), which encompasses a lower limb aerobic exercise game and an upper limb coordination and mobilization game, and to assess the usability of the prototype.
Methods:
The usability evaluation had two phases: the initial assessment by the researchers, and the user-rated analysis of a single session by 10 patients (4 women) with HF. The sessions were recorded and individually evaluated by two researchers using the Serious Game Usability Evaluator (SGUE) tool. After each session, the participants completed the System Usability Scale (SUS) and a subscale of Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) to rate the usability of the exergaming prototype and enjoyment, respectively. Participants reported more negative events (e.g., confusion [n = 76]) than neutral (n = 49) and positive events (n = 11).
Results:
The mean ± standard deviation (SD) SUS score was 71.5 ± 17.8 and the mean ± SD IMI score was 25.1 ± 3.5, showing a good user-rated usability and high level of interest, respectively.
Conclusions:
HEFMOB represents a significant initial step in developing an exergaming prototype customized for CHF. HEFMOB seems usable, and participants experienced satisfaction in a single session. Future research is required to conclusively demonstrate the efficacy and effectiveness of HEFMOB.
Citation
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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.