Gamification, What Is It and How Can It Be Used In Health Outcomes Research?

Abstract

Gamification is a novel approach which aims at applying elements from game design to other contexts. This method seeks to improve user experience and increase engagement, with medium to long-term benefits on behavior. So far gamification has been successfully applied to Business, e-Learning and Marketing, and starts attracting more and more attention in e-Health. The aim of this paper is to introduce theoretical aspects on gamification and its possible impact on wellness and health-related context. By providing real-world example of how it is currently applied in health, we will showcase the means and methods that can increase patients and health professionals’ fun, engagement, and communication. Motivation plays a key role when engaging into a brand new activity in autonomy for a recurring amount of time (intrinsic motivation vs extrinsic motivation). There is a wide variety of elements related to motivation affordances (e.g., points, leaderboards, feedback), however to be effective they must address the social situation of gameplay as well as the specificity of each health context. Platform of implementation for gamification is a non-negligible aspect as some of them may be more effective mediums for delivering health interventions. Limitations will be reviewed and we will provide suggestions so that future initiative may avoid known pitfalls. Gamification is growing on a fertile soil with the widespread of digital platform in the population (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and computers) and current technologies used in medical care for assessment and monitoring (e.g., ePRO, online questionnaires, wearable devices). Current applications in e-Health have been proved to provide short-term engagement through extrinsic rewards, but the long-term potential of gamification remains to be explored. Solutions must be sought from existing psychology theories and game design experience.