Health Video Games Spark Interest, Try to Gain Traction

“The current work is contradictory, and there is no consensus with regard to training duration/intensity and the outcomes used to assess the clinical effectiveness,” concluded researchers from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. “This in part is due to the off-the-shelf nature of the games used. A more satisfactory approach would be the development of bespoke games that match a clinical need.”

That’s a refrain heard throughout the games-for-health world. Just as often as the benefits are touted, so is the need for better research to firmly demonstrate the value of gaming in healthcare.

A meta-analysis of 54 studies on health-related serious digital games found small, positive effects on healthy lifestyle and the factors that determine that lifestyle.⁴ Effects on actual clinical outcomes were also significant, but much smaller. The analysis called for better evaluation of the components of games that have the greatest effects.

A recently published white paper on games for health for children said the top two research aims should be “adequately powered randomized clinical trials” on outcomes for a stronger empirical basis of game efficacy and on testing game design and behavior change features.⁵

Dr. Baranowski, the first author on the white paper, says it’s clear that “if [games are] going to be accepted as a legitimate health-related intervention then we need to increase the sophistication of the research.”

Funding Needed

The increased interest in health gaming has developed even as funding for these games has become more difficult. The primary source has been the National Institutes of Health, which now funds half as many submissions as it used to.

“The ability to get funding to do this kind of work has diminished remarkably,” he says. “I’m hoping that other kinds of institutions will come forward.”

Use of mainstream game devices, such as the Wii Fit and Xbox, for health purposes, has not translated into interest from commercial gaming companies in specifically developing health games. But that interest would be nice, says Dr. Baranowski.

Dr. Lieberman

“A problem with games for health that have been developed so far is that they reflect the expertise that’s available to us,” he says. “We do as well as we can, given the resources we have, but frankly we don’t have the $30 million that the game-development companies have when they develop their blockbuster, shoot-’em-up video games. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if somehow those companies got engaged in doing this kind of work?”