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Research Quest on rehab gamification

Research Quest on rehab gamification
Top 10 Research Quests from Research Raconteur

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If you have ever:

  • Exercised in order to get rewards from your health insurance,


  • Chosen one coffee shop over another to get loyalty points,


  • Logged into an app to maintain your “streak”,


then you have fallen for gamification.


You are proof that it works.


That is why I have recently become obsessed with the idea of adding gamification elements into rehab.


The more I read about it, the more obvious it becomes that this is something that has the potential to drastically improve patient compliance and the rate of successful outcomes.


A review came out in 2021 from Tuah et al.:​​


  • The researchers found 42 clinical studies where gamification was shown to increase patient motivation and engagement.




    In several of those studies, gamifying the rehab even increased the efficacy of the therapy in orthopedic, neurological and gait rehabilitation.



Another review came out last year by Pimentel-Ponce et al. specifically looking at neurological rehab:​​


  • After reviewing 10 clinical trials, the authors found that adding elements of points, levels, missions and rewards increased therapeutic adherence.


However, it is more complicated than simply adding a few extrinsic rewards.



A review by Zuckerman and Gal-Oz in 2015 saw that:​​


  • Studies where the researchers solely added a point system or leaderboard did not outperform normal rehab.

​​

There are 4 intrinsic and 4 extrinsic systems that NEED to be in place in order for any gamification system to actually improve outcomes.


But aren't games just for teenage boys?


Would this actually work on adults as well?​​


According to surveys by Statistica, AARP & ESA:


  • 68% of gamers are over 18 years old.



  • The average gamer is 33 years old with 45% being female.



  • There are more adult women playing games than under 18 year old boys.

If you’re looking for a system to increase patient compliance and success, then we have a course coming out on 29 August where we guide you step by step through how we gamify an Achilles tendinopathy program.

References

Tuah, N.M.; Ahmedy, F.; Gani, A.; Yong, L.N. A Survey on Gamification for Health Rehabilitation Care: Applications, Opportunities, and Open ChallengesInformation 202112, 91.

Pimentel-Ponce M, Romero-Galisteo RP, Palomo-Carrión R, Pinero-Pinto E, Merchán-Baeza JA, Ruiz-Muñoz M, Oliver-Pece J, González-Sánchez M. Gamification and neurological motor rehabilitation in children and adolescents: A systematic review. Neurologia (Engl Ed). 2021 Apr 15:S0213-4853(21)00049-9. English, Spanish. doi: 10.1016/j.nrl.2021.02.011. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33867183.

Zuckerman, O., Gal-Oz, A. Deconstructing gamification: evaluating the effectiveness of continuous measurement, virtual rewards, and social comparison for promoting physical activityPers Ubiquit Comput 18, 1705–1719 (2014)

Kyle (1).png

Written by Kyle van Heerden

Online Educator at Research Raconteur

Top 10 Research Quests from Research Raconteur

Are you ready to clinically conquer?

  • FREE Top 10 Research Quests ebook (as voted for by over 5,000 clinicians)

  • FREE infographical summaries on the latest
    clinical research

  • FREE membership to all future Research Quests

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"I find these updates so helpful.

 

It is often so difficult to find time to read articles when you have your own practice.

Between seeing patients and running your practice it becomes difficult to make sure that you are up to date on the latest rehab techniques and new studies that's been done.

 

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