Physical and Cognitive Impacts of Digital Games on Older Adults
The purpose of this study is to examine the physical and cognitive impacts of digital games on older adults. We conducted five independent meta analyses by reporting 58 effect sizes generated from 36 studies. Results suggested that playing digital games is effective in improving older adults' physical balance (g 0.67) balance confidence (g 0.46) functional mobility (g 0.53) executive function (g 0.76) and processing speed (g 0.54) Based on the results of heterogeneity analysis, we conducted moderator analyses for physical balance and processing speed. Key findings included the following: Playing digital games can not only improve the physical balance of older adults living in community but also those living in nursing homes; the relationship between age of participants or amount of time of gameplay and effect size is weak and the direction of the relationship is not definitive.
Journal of applied gerontology the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society