Impact of Serious Games on Health and Well-being of Elderly: A Systematic Review

Besides their entertainment value, serious gamescan have beneficial therapeutic effects for elderlypeople that improve their health and well-being. Gamesare likely to be accepted by elderly persons who haveenjoyed games their lives, and because there are moreand more of such elderly, it is important to investigategames as a therapeutic device. This research reviewedthe literature focusing on the effects of games on elderlypersons in three main types of effects: physical,cognitive, and social effects. The majority of reviewedpapers focused on physical and cognitive effects, andwere published in recent years, which emphasizes therelative novelty of this topic and suggests that futureresearch will need to address social impact as well. Inaddition, while many papers claimed positive impacts asa result of using games, our review found that moreattention should be given to research designs.