Researchers seek to discover how interactive video games can be designed to improve physical activity, prevention behaviors and self-management of chronic conditions
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced more than $1.85 million in grants for research that will offer unprecedented insight into how digital games can improve players' health behaviors and outcomes. With funding from RWJF's Health Games Research national program, nine research teams across the country will conduct extensive studies to discover, for example, how the popular dance pad video game Dance Dance Revolution might help Parkinson's patients reduce the risk of falling, how Wii Active might be most effectively implemented in high schools to help overweight students lose weight, how a mobile phone game with a breath interface might help smokers quit or reduce their tobacco use, or how facial recognition games might be designed to help people with autism learn to identify others' emotions.
Health Games Research is supported by an $8.25 million grant from RWJF's Pioneer Portfolio, which funds innovative projects that may lead to breakthrough improvements in the future of health and health care. The national program, which conducts, supports, and disseminates research to improve the quality and impact of health games, is headquartered at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It is directed by Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., communication researcher in the university's Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research and a leading expert in the research and design of interactive media for learning and health behavior change. The grants were awarded under the program's second funding round to strengthen the evidence base in this emerging field.
"Digital games are interactive and experiential, and so they can engage people in powerful ways to enhance learning and health behavior change, especially when they are designed on the basis of well-researched strategies," said Lieberman. "The studies funded by Health Games Research will provide cutting-edge, evidence-based strategies that designers will be able to use in the future to make their health games more effective."
The nine research teams, chosen from among 185 proposals, each have been awarded between $100,000 and $300,000 to lead one- to two-year studies of digital games that engage players in physical activity and/or motivate them to improve how they take care of themselves through healthy changes in lifestyle; prevention behaviors; cognitive, social or physical skills; chronic disease self-management; and/or adherence to a medical treatment plan. Studies will focus on diverse population groups that vary by race and ethnicity, health status, income level, and game-play setting, with age groups ranging from elementary school children to 80-year-olds. The research teams will study participants' responses to health games played on a variety of platforms, such as video game consoles, computers, mobile phones and robots.
"The pace of growth and innovation in digital games is incredible, and we see tremendous potential to design them to help people stay healthy or manage chronic conditions like diabetes or Parkinson's disease. However, we need to know more about what works and what does not -- and why," said Paul Tarini, team director for RWJF's Pioneer Portfolio. "Health Games Research is a major investment to build a research base for this dynamic young field. Further, the insights and ideas that flow from this work will help us continue to expand our imagination of what is possible in this arena."
The nine grant recipients are:
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) Reward Circuitry, Autism and Games that Teach Social Perceptual Skills -- tests effects of facial perception games on the brain activity and facial perception skills of 8- to 12-year-old children who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD tend to have difficulty perceiving and interpreting facial expressions and recognizing a person's identity by observing their face. The games used in the study challenge them to notice subtle differences in faces and expressions and give them opportunities to rehearse these skills and receive feedback on their performance. Behavioral testing and use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of players' brains before and after playing the games for 50 hours over the course of eight weeks will help the researchers determine how the games influence facial perception skills and how the brain changes in response to these game experiences.
George Washington University (Washington, DC) Active-Adventure: Investigating a Novel Exergaming Genre in Inner City School Physical Education Programs -- compares physical, psychological and behavioral effects of three activities: (1) playing Winds of Orbis, a video game that involves an upper and lower body workout as the player moves in order to control a character's movements in the game; (2) playing Dance Dance Revolution, a popular video game that provides a lower body workout as players dance on a pad that detects their dance steps; and (3) engaging in traditional physical education activities at school. Study participants are inner-city African-American and Hispanic students from grades 1-8 who are randomly assigned to the three groups. The study examines various outcomes such as their enjoyment of the activities, attitudes toward physical activity, amount of exercise and number of calories burned.
Georgetown University (Washington, DC) Wii Active Exergame Intervention for Low-Income African-American Obese and Overweight Adolescents -- assigns obese and overweight urban high school students to (1) play the Wii Active competitively after school with the goal of lowering their body mass index (BMI), (2) play the Wii Active cooperatively in a team after school with the goal of helping each other reduce their BMI, or (3) play with no access to Wii Active after school (control condition). The seven-month field experiment examines physiological, social and cognitive outcomes of participants in all three groups to determine whether those who play Wii Active are more physically active; lose more weight; develop greater self-esteem; have more friends; and have better memory, attention and other cognitive skills than those assigned to the control group. The study also examines whether competitive or cooperative game play influences these outcomes the most.
Long Island University (Brooklyn, NY) Dance Video Game Training and Falling in Parkinson's Disease -- compares the use of a commercially available dance pad video game, Dance Dance Revolution, to two traditional treatment options that help people with Parkinson's Disease reduce their risk of falling by increasing their balance, strength, endurance, motor coordination and visual-motor integration. The two traditional treatments are rhythmic stepping and treadmill training with music. The researchers assess balance, motor function, reaction time and self-confidence to evaluate the game in comparison to the two traditional treatments. They also use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to observe participants' brain activity.