Exergames Designed for Older Adults: A Pilot Evaluation on Psychosocial Well-Being

Abstract

Objective: Exergames are increasingly been used in the primary healthcare domain for older adults who are 65 years and above. However, most of the exergames on current market are not designed for the aging population. The current study introduced five new exergames developed for elderly and evaluated their benefits.

Methods: Five new exergames were developed by researchers from Finland, Singapore, and Japan, in which the game topics, difficulties, and user interface were designed particularly for older adults. A between-group pilot study was further conducted to evaluate their psychosocial effects by comparing to traditional exercise and care-as-usual program, with a sample of 30 community-dwelling older adults in Singapore.

Results: Results showed that exergame group had significantly higher exercise enjoyment over other two groups. Exergame group has lower self-efficacy than other two groups, although it was not statistically significant. Significant subgroup difference was detected in neither life satisfaction nor loneliness across the three groups.

Conclusion: The study highlighted the effect of fun and entertainment elements on the psychosocial effect of exergames and called for simpler interactive systems and easier exergame tasks for the older adults.

Keywords: Active aging; Game; Health; Human–computer interaction.