This blog looks at a literature review by Johnson et al (2016) that examined the effectiveness of gamified applications for both health and wellbeing | The Mental Elf Blog
In their research the authors investigated:
- What evidence is there for the effectiveness of gamification applied to health and wellbeing?
- How is gamification being applied to health and wellbeing applications? What specific game elements, delivery platforms and theories of motivation are being used?
- What audiences are targeted? What effects between different audiences are observed?
- What health and wellbeing domains are targeted?
Conclusion: The growing interest in gamified interventions to improve mental and physical health has resulted in the evidence base growing at a sonic speed. Although, there is a strong need for well-designed studies and more RCTs, the current evidence suggests very encouraging results, in particular for physical health. There is still a lack of adequate definitions in this field, but I think it is only a matter of years until a consensus will be reached.
Read the full research overview here
Read the original research article here
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