A systematic review of gamification techniques applied to elderly care

The proportion of the world’s population growing older is rapidly increasing over the last decades. With the recent progresses seen in information and communication technologies, there have been great concerns about developing personalized healthcare services that can ensure the living conditions and active aging of the elderly people. Among these technologies, we highlight and review in this work, the current state of gamification and related techniques applied to the elderly care context. Six research questions were defined to provide an overview on the current state in the development of gamified systems for elderly care through the identification of publication source types, research areas, target groups, game design elements and technologies employed and observed issues and benefits of using gamification in this context. Results have shown a great diversity in publication source types and research areas, even within the health domain. Different target groups were identified based on surrounding environment and physical and cognitive capabilities of the elderly person. Feedback, progression, rewards and social interaction enhancement are highlighted as the most relevant and frequently used game design elements for this context. Technological features observed include self-management systems, portable devices, physical robots, consoles and wearable technologies. The use of gamification techniques to support elderly people has proven to be beneficial to improve wellbeing as well as both physical, cognitive, social, and emotional state of the elderly person. Current challenges are most related with the need for traditional healthcare services to integrate gamification techniques to improve personalized healthcare and answer different necessities and adapt the support provided according to the individual capabilities of elderly people. The findings presented in this systematic literature review should be considered in the development of future personalized elderly care solutions by adapting the support provided according to interests, capabilities, necessities and contexts associated to the elderly person as a means to improve independence, health and wellbeing, capture interest and positive engagement, facilitate social interaction and decrease impact of many different medical conditions affecting older people.