Gamified mobile health interventions for mental well-being of older adults

ABSTRACT

Population ageing has raised major concerns about the prevalence of age-related mental health deterioration which is further intensified amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions bear promising impacts on alleviating the mental health burden of this vulnerable group. However, mHealth solutions often report a high drop-out rate suggesting a lack of motivation and engagement among users. Also, the limited number of clinically validated mHealth applications indicates an urgent demand for empirical evidence on the subject. This paper proposes a design framework for gamified mHealth activities to enhance mental and cognitive well-being of the elderly. Further, the paper outlines a research protocol to investigate the impacts of the framework on a cohort of 250 older adults in a developing country under a single-subject experimental design. Our social experiment may reveal valuable insights into the potential of mHealth solutions and gamification in this domain. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.