Promoting Physical Activity in Japanese Older Adults Using a Social Pervasive Game: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint) (original) (raw)
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Journal of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Engineering, 2019
Introduction Promoting active lifestyles among older adults can bring drastic benefits for their quality of life. The innovative mechanics of pervasive games – that mix real and virtual worlds – can further engage and motivate elderly people into that goal. Using social interaction as a study case, we designed and evaluated the feasibility of a pervasive game to investigate how game design elements can affect the levels of physical activity of older adults. Methods A mobile, location-based pervasive game was developed, and a study with community dwelling elderly volunteers from Kyoto, Japan was performed to evaluate its feasibility as an experiment system. Results Participants reported that the theme and visual style of the game was adequate, and that game rules and goals could be easily understood. The game was considered enjoyably challenging and engaging. Further analysis showed that next iterations of the system must pay special attention to the level of complexity of controls, ...
Video Game’s design Implications to promote moderate activity in seniors
Avances en Interacción Humano-Computadora, 2020
Researchers and different efforts have identified several social, health, financial challenges, among others, with ageing population. Regarding health challenges, the World Health Organization encourages physical activation programs to promote healthy ageing. These programs aim to alleviate imminent musculoskeletal deterioration, or injuries that may occur. Severely increased deteriorations may affect older adults’ movement patterns, affecting their autonomy, control, or force. The only way to reduce this deterioration is through physical activation. Therefore, medical gerontology considers physical activity as one of the best tools to improve health and prevent many diseases. Within HCI, research has evaluated exergames as an alternative to engage older adults in physical activation. Exergames have become the technological focus of physical activity, stimulating physical activity through play and competition. However, it is unclear how to maximize these benefits. In this paper we p...
Feasibility and Enjoyment of Exercise Video Games in Older Adults
Frontiers in Public Health, 2021
Introduction: Several interventions have been developed to enhance social connectedness among older adults. However, little research has demonstrated their performance in a social distancing environment. Exergames are not only beneficial to older adults' physical and cognitive health, but they also allow players to interact with each other at a distance, which can reduce loneliness and increase social connection. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate older adults' perceptions of two commercially available exergames.Methods: Twenty healthy community-dwelling older adults (M age = 73.30, SD = 5.95, range = 65–84 years, 80% women) were recruited in this pilot study between July 2019 and February 2020. They were asked to play two exergames for 10 min each on the Xbox One with Kinect console: Just Dance and Kinect Sports Rivals. After gameplay, they provided both quantitative and qualitative feedback on these games.Results: Participants reported an average rating for exe...
2014
In the last 30 years, technological advances have altered occupational and recreational activities that have resulted in decreased daily physical activity. The resultant increase in physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour has been reported to be an independent risk factor for a number of chronic diseases. Any modality or strategy that results in increased physical activity levels and energy expenditure merits further investigation. Aim: to determine if active video games promote health enhancing physical activity in an asymptomatic adult population (18- 45 years of age). A secondary aim of the thesis is to examine affect states and psychological states associated with the use of active video games in an adult population since these factors are likely to have an effect on medium and long term adherence rates. Three studies were carried out to answer the research questions. Methods: Study 1 assessed the physiological responses to a sedentary video game, an active video game (Ninte...
Designing for spectators and coaches: Social support in pervasive health games for youth
2013 7th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies For Healthcare and Workshops, 2013
ABSTRACT Active video games and other technology-based interventions can promote physical activity participation in children and adolescents, particularly those who are uninterested in traditional sports or lack access to gyms, sports clubs, or safe neighborhood recreational environments. Yet simply placing a game console in a home or school might not be sufficient for changing physical activity behaviors. Rather, social support and opportunities for structured group activity may be important aspects of pervasive health games. We know little, however, about how to design active video games and other technology-based interventions in ways that explicitly allow for the provision of social support by other players as well as "spectators" of the game. Based on the results of a longitudinal study of an active video game used in American schools, this paper contributes design recommendations for features in pervasive health games that explicitly encourage social support.
Physical Activity Motivating Games
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2012
ABSTRACT People’s daily lives have become increasingly sedentary, with extended periods of time being spent in front of a host of electronic screens for learning, work, and entertainment. We present research into the use of an adaptive persuasive technology, which introduces bursts of physical activity into a traditionally sedentary activity: computer game playing. Our game design approach leverages the playfulness and addictive nature of computer games to motivate players to engage in mild physical activity. The design allows players to gain virtual in-game rewards in return for performing real physical activity captured by sensory devices. This article presents a two-stage analysis of the activity-motivating game design approach applied to a prototype game. Initially, we detail the overall acceptance of active games discovered when trialing the technology with 135 young players. Results showed that players performed more activity without negatively affecting their perceived enjoyment of the playing experience. The analysis did discover, however, a lack of balance between the amounts of physical activity carried out by players with various gaming skills, which prompted a subsequent investigation into adaptive techniques for balancing the amount of physical activity performed by players. An evaluation of additional 90 players showed that adaptive techniques successfully overcame the gaming skills dependence and achieved more balanced activity levels. Overall, this work positions activity-motivating games as an approach that can potentially change the way players interact with computer games and lead to healthier lifestyles.