Gamified mobile health interventions for mental well-being of older adults

Nguyen, T.-T., Chai, J. C. M., Eiring, Ø., Wang, W., O'Donnell, R. R. and Nguyen, H. D. (2021) Gamified mobile health interventions for mental well-being of older adults. In: Meiselwitz, G. (ed.) Social Computing and Social Media: Applications in Marketing, Learning, and Health: 13th International Conference, SCSM 2021, Held as Part of the 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021, Virtual Event, July 24–29, 2021, Proceedings, Part II. Series: Lecture notes in computer science (12775). Springer: Cham, pp. 393-406. ISBN 9783030776848 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-77685-5_29)

Abstract

Population ageing has raised major concerns about the prevalence of age-related mental health deterioration which is further intensified amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions bear promising impacts on alleviating the mental health burden of this vulnerable group. However, mHealth solutions often report a high drop-out rate suggesting a lack of motivation and engagement among users. Also, the limited number of clinically validated mHealth applications indicates an urgent demand for empirical evidence on the subject. This paper proposes a design framework for gamified mHealth activities to enhance mental and cognitive well-being of the elderly. Further, the paper outlines a research protocol to investigate the impacts of the framework on a cohort of 250 older adults in a developing country under a single-subject experimental design. Our social experiment may reveal valuable insights into the potential of mHealth solutions and gamification in this domain.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Nguyen, Dr Hoang D.
• Authors: Nguyen, T.-T., Chai, J. C. M., Eiring, Ø., Wang, W., O'Donnell, R. R., and Nguyen, H. D.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Publisher: Springer
• ISBN: 9783030776848
• Published Online: 03 July 2021