A meta-analysis of serious digital games for healthy lifestyle promotion

Ann DeSmet*, Dimitri Van Ryckeghem, Sofie Compernolle, Tom Baranowski, Debbe Thompson, Geert Crombez, Karolien Poels, Wendy Van Lippevelde, Sara Bastiaensens, Katrien Van Cleemput, Heidi Vandebosch, Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal(Systematic) Review article peer-review

Abstract

Several systematic reviews have described health-promoting effects of serious games but so far no meta-analysis has been reported. This paper presents a meta-analysis of 54 serious digital game studies for healthy lifestyle promotion, in which we investigated the overall effectiveness of serious digital games on healthy lifestyle promotion outcomes and the role of theoretically and clinically important moderators. Findings showed that serious games have small positive effects on healthy lifestyles (g = 0.260,95% CI 0.148; 0.373) and their determinants (g = 0.334, 95% CI 0.260; 0.407), especially for knowledge. Effects on clinical outcomes were significant, but much smaller (g = 0.079, 95% CI 0.038; 0.120). Long-term effects were maintained for all outcomes except for behavior. Serious games are best individually tailored to both socio-demographic and change need information, and benefit from a strong focus on game theories or a dual theoretical foundation in both behavioral prediction and game theories. They can be effective either as a stand-alone or multi-component programs, and appeal to populations regardless of age and gender. Given that effects of games remain heterogeneous, further explorations of which game features create larger effects are needed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)95-107
Number of pages13
JournalPreventive Medicine
Volume69
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Serious games
  • Digital games
  • Systematic review
  • Meta-analysis
  • Tailoring
  • Multicomponent
  • Health promotion
  • MULTIMEDIA NUTRITION EDUCATION
  • COMPUTER-ASSISTED-INSTRUCTION
  • BEHAVIOR-CHANGE INTERVENTIONS
  • RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED-TRIALS
  • KIVA ANTIBULLYING PROGRAM
  • RECEIVING FOOD ASSISTANCE
  • VIDEO GAMES
  • PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY
  • SELF-MANAGEMENT
  • YOUNG-ADULTS

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