Health game interventions to enhance physical activity self-efficacy of children: a quantitative systematic review.
OBJECTIVE
To describe and explore health game interventions that enhance the physical activity self-efficacy of children and to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions.


BACKGROUND
Physical inactivity among children has increased globally. Self-efficacy is one of the key determinants of physical activity engagement in children. There is a need to explore new and innovative interventions to enhance physical activity self-efficacy that are also acceptable for today's children.


METHODS
Quantitative systematic review.


METHODS
MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL, PsychInfo, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library between 1996-2016.


METHODS
A review was conducted in accordance with the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. A systematic search was done in June 2016 by two independent reviewers according to the eligibility criteria as follows: controlled trial, comparison of digital game intervention with no game intervention control condition, participants younger than 18 years of age and reported statistical analyses of a physical activity self-efficacy outcome measure.


RESULTS
Altogether, five studies met the eligibility criteria. Four game interventions, employing three active games and one educational game, had positive effects on children's physical activity self-efficacy. An intervention, employing a game-themed mobile application, showed no intervention effects. The variation between intervention characteristics was significant and the quality of the studies was found to be at a medium level.


CONCLUSIONS
Although health game interventions seemingly enhance the physical activity self-efficacy of children and have potential as a means of increasing physical activity, more rigorous research is needed to clarify how effective such interventions are in the longer run to contribute to the development of game-based interventions.
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Finland.
Anni
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9077-1663
A
Pakarinen
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Finland.
Heidi
H
Parisod
Department of Information Technology, University of Turku, Finland.
Jouni
J
Smed
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Finland.|Hospital District of Southwest Finland, Turku, Finland.
Sanna
S
Salanterä
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D000068957:Games, Recreational / Q000523:psychology*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020377:Self Efficacy; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*
children; health game; health promotion; nursing; physical activity; self-efficacy; systematic review