Let's get technical! Gaming and technology for weight control and health promotion in children (original) (raw)
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The advantages and limitations of digital games in children’s health promotion
Childhood is an important period for forming the foundation for future health and well-being, and there is need for new methods for these health promotion purposes. Digital games are promising methods that could cover the challenges current health promotion efforts are facing. Ethical acceptability is an essential aspect of health promotion methods and special attention needs to be paid when promoting the health of children. This and increased interest in digital games as health promotion methods highlight the need for discussing the limitations, in addition to reasoning the advantages of digital games in children's health promotion, to advance ethically sustainable development and use of health games. The aim of this overview review is to summarize and discuss the advantages and limitations of digital games in children's health promotion based on the previous literature.
Using videogames to treat childhood obesity
Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2014
Childhood obesity is one of the most dangerous pathologies; it can lead to serious illness in the absence of medical support. In this article we give an overview of the use of videogames for reducing and normalizing the weight of overweight and obese children. We discuss the categorization of the existing games and their limits, and we outline the perspectives of psychopedagogical research in the domain of game design for treating obese and overweight children. The role of long-term motivation in the treatment of obesity is one of the crucial questions we discuss. We try to understand how videogames can help children and parents maintain motivation during weight-loss treatment. The role of parents is undeniable in ensuring the success of weight-loss programs for overweight or obese children. Perhaps videogames can be the instrument for families' lifestyle changes.
International Journal of Serious Games
Obesity that begins in childhood results in excess adult mortality estimated at between 50 and 80%. The medical community developed an understanding of obesity as a chronic condition that must be managed on an ongoing basis. An integrated system based on ICT, including games adapted to the age and profile of the children and youth can be the key to support them and their families in the prevention of obesity and the acquisition of healthy habits. Important societal and economic impact is foreseen from the adoption of these technologies. In this paper, Serious Games will be research to remark its potential for fostering desirable health-related behaviors through motivational reinforcement, personalized teaching approaches, and social networking as well as more effective utilization of obesity-related nutrition and lifestyle information.
Design of video games for children’s diet and physical activity behavior change
International Journal of Computer Science in Sport, 2010
Serious video games (VG) offer new opportunities for promoting health related diet and physical activity change among children. Games can be designed to use storylines, characters, and behavior change procedures, including modeling (e.g., engaging characters make changes themselves, and face and overcome challenges related to fruit and vegetable (FV) and physical activity (PA) goal attainment and/or consumption), skill development (e.g., asking behaviors; virtual recipe preparation), self regulatory behaviors (problem solving, goal setting, goal review, decision making), rewards (e.g., points and positive statements generated by the program), immediate feedback (e.g., through characters and/or statements that appear on the computer screen at critical decision points), and personalization (e.g., tailored choices offered at critical junctures, based on responses to baselines questions related to preferences, outcome expectancies, etc). We are in the earliest stages of learning how to optimally design effective behavior change procedures for use in VG, and yet they have been demonstrated to change behavior. As we learn, VG offer more and better opportunities for obesity prevention that can adjust to individual needs and preferences.
White Paper: Games for Health for Children—Current Status and Needed Research
2015
Videogames for health (video-G4H) offer exciting, innovative, potentially highly effective methods for increasing knowledge, delivering persuasive messages, changing behaviors, and influencing health outcomes. Although early outcome results are promising, additional research is needed to determine the game design and behavior change procedures that best promote G4H effectiveness and to identify and minimize possible adverse effects. Guidelines for ideal use of different types of G4H by children and adolescents should be elucidated to enhance effectiveness and minimize adverse effects. G4H stakeholders include organizational implementers, policy makers, players and their families, researchers, designers, retailers, and publishers. All stakeholders should be involved in G4H development and have a voice in setting goals to capitalize on their insights to enhance effectiveness and use of the game. In the future, multiple targeted G4H should be available to meet a population's diverse health needs in developmentally appropriate ways. Substantial, consistent, and sophisticated research with appropriate levels of funding is needed to realize the benefits of G4H. V ideogames have the ability to engage players in ways different from other media. 1 About 29 percent of videogame players are 18 years old or younger. 2 Games for health (G4H) are an exciting arena for scientific inquiry and a promising intervention modality. In ways unimaginable a generation ago, we are now using sophisticated technology for promoting and assessing health and well-being. Many G4H are built on platforms already familiar to players (such as personal computers, Web browsers, game consoles, and smartphones), making them readily accessible and easy to
Global Journal of Health Science, 2017
The benefits of a healthy lifestyle during childhood are difficult to overestimate and computer games represent a promising intervention to promote healthy lifestyles in children. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effects of online games for improving children's knowledge of healthy nutrition and physical activity (PA) guidelines. Using an experimental design, we aimed to understand if children aged 7-9 liked this type of intervention, if baseline knowledge of PA or nutrition guidelines improved after playing one of two games, and beyond those of the control condition, and if one game was more effective than the other. Each intervention, including the control, resulted in positive change, showing an overall improved knowledge. The game with the greatest improvements was the more interactive game that gave feedback along the way. Our pilot study showed that games may be useful in promoting healthy lifestyles to children.
2017
Childhood obesity is the most prevalent chronic disease in developed and developing countries. Recent studies showed that the Canary Islands are the Spanish region with the highest rate of childhood obesity. However, this disease is easy to prevent, educating children from healthy habits, and, the ICT in general and videogames in particular, represent an opportunity to work towards change. Therefore, this paper presents the design of an educational intervention program to help the ambulatory treatment of childhood obesity. This program is intended for children 8 to 12 years of age with obesity and who come for the first time to the Pediatric Service of the University Hospital of Canaries, and is currently being validated. The partial results show that the satisfaction of the minors with the program is high, emphasizing the focus in games. Keywords—Gamification, Active Games, Childhood obesity, Healthy Habits Education.
Interactive video games to promote physical activity among healthy children and youths
Pediatria Polska, 2019
Physical activity is crucial in reducing the risk of civilisation diseases: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, osteoporosis, cancer, and depression. An adequate level of physical activity during childhood prevents the development of early atherosclerotic lesions, which result from obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia, frequently appearing amongst children. Most children do not meet the basic physical activity guidelines. Children spend most of their time in a sitting position, which reduces their daily energy expenditure. Interactive video games (IVG) can be an alternative and attractive form of spending free time, which may contribute to reduction of children's sedentary behaviour. The use of IVG in preventive health programs can become a way to increase the level of physical activity and reduce cardiometabolic risk factors. The aim of this study is to review the research on the impact of the IVG on the level of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and energy expenditure of healthy children.
DIGITAL GAME-BASED LEARNING IN PREVENTING OBESITY AMONG CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: A SURVEY
IAEME PUBLICATION, 2020
Digital gaming applications can motivate and promote health awareness among adolescents thus can help in preventing obesity. This paper will specifically review some existing digital game applications in promoting healthy eating and physically active in helping to prevent obesity among young children and adolescents. The publications to be included in the review are being identified using relevant keywords This paper will gather and analyse the elements of the learning objectives of the games and the evaluations carried out on the existing games. The game types and mechanics, the objectives related to learning and the possible categorisation of the games are examined. From the findings, all the developed games were received positive feedback and have potential to motivate students to live healthily. Digital game-based learning reveals the potential in offering knowledge gain for young children and adolescents in promoting good health