Games for Health for Children-Current Status and Needed Research.
Videogames for health (G4H) offer exciting, innovative, potentially highly effective methods for increasing knowledge, delivering persuasive messages, changing behaviors, and influencing health outcomes. Although early outcome results are promising, additional research is needed to determine the game design and behavior change procedures that best promote G4H effectiveness and to identify and minimize possible adverse effects. Guidelines for ideal use of different types of G4H by children and adolescents should be elucidated to enhance effectiveness and minimize adverse effects. G4H stakeholders include organizational implementers, policy makers, players and their families, researchers, designers, retailers, and publishers. All stakeholders should be involved in G4H development and have a voice in setting goals to capitalize on their insights to enhance effectiveness and use of the game. In the future, multiple targeted G4H should be available to meet a population's diverse health needs in developmentally appropriate ways. Substantial, consistent, and sophisticated research with appropriate levels of funding is needed to realize the benefits of G4H.
1 USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine , Houston, Texas.
Tom
T
Baranowski
2 Division of Psychological and Educational Services, Fordham University Graduate School of Education , New York, New York.
Fran
F
Blumberg
3 Archimage, Inc., Houston, Texas.
Richard
R
Buday
4 Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University , Ghent, Belgium .
Ann
A
DeSmet
5 play2PREVENT Lab, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine , New Haven, Connecticut.
Lynn E
LE
Fiellin
6 Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin , Madison, Wisconsin.
C Shawn
CS
Green
7 Serious Games Institute, Coventry University , Coventry, United Kingdom .
Pamela M
PM
Kato
8 Departments of Communication Studies and Health Sciences, Northeastern University , Boston, Massachusetts.
Amy Shirong
AS
Lu
9 Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School , Worcester, Massachusetts.
Ann E
AE
Maloney
10 Centre for Physical Activity & Nutrition Research, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health, Deakin University , Melbourne, Australia .
Robin
R
Mellecker
11 Schell Games , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Brooke A
BA
Morrill
12 Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media, Michigan State University , East Lansing, Michigan.
Wei
W
Peng
13 Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas School of Public Health , Houston, Texas.
Ross
R
Shegog
14 Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University , Utrecht, The Netherlands .
Monique
M
Simons
15 Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Amanda E
AE
Staiano
1 USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine , Houston, Texas.
Debbe
D
Thompson
16 Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism & Mass Communication, St. Bonaventure University , New York.
Kimberly
K
Young
D000293:Adolescent; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D015444:Exercise; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D063731:Mobile Applications; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D018910:Video Games