Role of Video Games in Improving Health-Related Outcomes

By Brian A. Primack, Mary V. Carroll, M. McNamara, M. Klem, Brandy E. King, Michael Rich, C. W. Chan, S. Nayak. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2012

475 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Context Video games represent a multibillion-dollar industry in the U.S. Although video gaming has been associated with many negative health consequences, it may also be useful for therapeutic purposes. The goal of this study was to determine whether video games may be useful in improving health outcomes. Evidence acquisition Literature searches were performed in February 2010 in six databases: the Center on Media and Child Health Database of Research, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Reference lists were hand-searched to identify additional studies. Only RCTs that tested the effect of video games on a positive, clinically relevant health consequence were included. Study selection criteria were strictly defined and applied by two researchers working independently. Study background information (e.g., location, funding source), sample data (e.g., number of study participants, demographics), intervention and control details, outcomes data, and quality measures were abstracted independently by two researchers. Evidence synthesis Of 1452 articles retrieved using the current search strategy, 38 met all criteria for inclusion. Eligible studies used video games to provide physical therapy, psychological therapy, improved disease self-management, health education, distraction from discomfort, increased physical activity, and skills training for clinicians. Among the 38 studies, a total of 195 health outcomes were examined. Video games improved 69% of psychological therapy outcomes, 59% of physical therapy outcomes, 50% of physical activity outcomes, 46% of clinician skills outcomes, 42% of health education outcomes, 42% of pain distraction outcomes, and 37% of disease self-management outcomes. Study quality was generally poor; for example, two thirds (66%) of studies had follow-up periods of <12 weeks, and only 11% of studies blinded researchers. Conclusions There is potential promise for video games to improve health outcomes, particularly in the areas of psychological therapy and physical therapy. RCTs with appropriate rigor will help build evidence in this emerging area.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

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Citations in the corpus

A Meta-Analysis of Serious Digital Games for Healthy Lifestyle Promotion (2014, background): “The duration of the full intervention did not relate to a different effectiveness, in contrast with the finding of Primack et al. (2012).”
Current challenges to research on animal-assisted interventions (2017, background): “unpleasant mental states in human experimental trials (Koller & Goldman, 2012; Patel et al., 2006; Primack et al., 2012).”
Gaming Addiction, Gaming Engagement, and Psychological Health Complaints Among Norwegian Adolescents (2013, result): “It should in this regard be noted that although much research focus on the negative aspects of gaming addiction, several studies also attest to the potential health improving aspects of video game use (Primack et al., 2012).”
Sedentary behavior and health outcomes among older adults: a systematic review (2014, background): “illustrate this point, some studies have shown that video game and computer use, even though classified as sedentary by energy expenditure criteria, may reduce the risk of mental health disorders [51-53].”
Effects of video-game play on information processing: A meta-analytic investigation (2013, background): “In a recent review of 38 randomized control studies of video-game training on health-related outcomes, Primack et al. (2012) reported benefits associated with video-game play for psychological therapy as well as physical therapy and physical activity outcomes, but concluded that poor study quality…”