title: A meta-analysis of serious digital games for healthy lifestyle promotion.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Ann.DeSmet@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: DeSmet
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: Dimitri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Van Ryckeghem
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sofie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Compernolle
authors.affiliation: Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Baranowski
authors.affiliation: Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Debbe
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crombez
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karolien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Poels
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Van Lippevelde
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bastiaensens
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Katrien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Van Cleemput
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vandebosch
authors.affiliation: Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Bourdeaudhuij
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D011998:Recreation / Q000502:physiology; D018910:Video Games
keywords: Digital games; Health promotion; Meta-analysis; Multicomponent; Serious games; Systematic review; Tailoring