Does Gamification Work?

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Gamification has been suggested as a way to get patients more involved in their health, but does it really work?

Gamification has the potential to inspire patients to track their health and monitor their progress through motivation and rewards. Business Insider pointed out one obstacle though, noting, “Healthcare providers that want to offer games to their customers must do so without violating federal patient privacy regulations - a requirement that can make it difficult to target games to the patients who will benefit most from them.”

Now a study from Brigham Young University researchers that was published by the Journal of Medical internet Research finds, despite the popularity of gamification, the trend could be demotivating in the long term. “It’s just been assumed that gamified apps will work, but there has been no research to show that they’re effective for people long-term,” said Cameron Lister, lead author of the study.

Health Data Management reports researchers are concerned that gamification ignores key elements of behavior change and could be demotivating in the long run. Over time, people can view the rewards and badges on these apps as work instead of play and, once the rewards disappear, the motivation ultimately drops.

“There’s a missed opportunity to influence healthy behavior because most gamified health apps are only aimed at motivation,” BYU health science professor Josh West said. “Motivation is important, but people also need to develop skills that make behavior change easy to do.”

“This research, to our knowledge, represents the first comprehensive review of gamification use in health and fitness apps, and the potential to impact health behavior. The results show that use of gamification in health and fitness apps has become immensely popular, as evidenced by the number of apps found in the Apple App Store containing at least some components of gamification,” conclude researchers.

“This shows a lack of integrating important elements of behavioral theory from the app industry, which can potentially impact the efficacy of gamification apps to change behavior. Apps represent a very promising, burgeoning market and landscape in which to disseminate health behavior change interventions. Initial results show an abundant use of gamification in health and fitness apps, which necessitates the in-depth study and evaluation of the potential of gamification to change health behaviors.”