JMIR Serious Games

Alexithymia, characterized by difficulty identifying, describing, and expressing emotions, is prevalent among Chinese college students. Traditional art therapies face barriers, such as high psychological thresholds and limited accessibility. Accessible, low-threshold digital tools are needed to help address this challenge. Coloring the Emoji, a coloring-based serious game designed as a digital art therapy, offers a low-threshold tool to support emotion regulation for this population.

Soft skills are increasingly assessed in human resources, but commonly used methods (eg, interviews and self-report questionnaires) have well-known limitations. Serious games have been proposed as a complementary assessment format because they can standardize administration, embed assessment in interactive scenarios, and capture behavioral traces. However, evidence for their psychometric validity remains limited and heterogeneous. Establishing convergent validity against well-established reference instruments is a key step in supporting their use as assessment tools.

Physical activity is one of the preferred interventions for mild cognitive impairment (MCI); however, the physical activity levels and adherence of older adults with MCI are particularly limited. Exergames are expected to be a key strategy to address these issues. However, existing exergames lack usability among the older adult population.

Adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities often exhibit deficits in motor proficiency and neurocognitive processing, which can limit their functional independence. Although virtual reality (VR) exergames provide a motivating platform for physical activity, objective data quantifying their impact on standardized motor scales remain scarce, particularly when implemented through structured pedagogical frameworks. Earlier research established the WISH (warm-up, imitation, settings, half-hour) and WON (warm-up, objective evaluation, no problem!) protocols to facilitate gameplay independence in this population. However, the extent to which this systematic approach translates into measurable clinical motor and reaction time gains requires further investigation.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has become increasingly prevalent among college students, while the prevalence of insomnia and social jet lag has also gradually increased in this population. Comorbidity among these conditions is common in young adults. Nevertheless, the internal correlational architecture underlying individual symptom indicators remains unclear.

Pediatric dental behavior management is difficult to teach because learners need safe opportunities to practice. Digital simulation tools offer new opportunities for safer and more structured training. However, the use of these approaches in pediatric dental behavior management education has not been systematically synthesized.

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a global health issue with low survival rates, for which bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is crucial. In China, bystander CPR rates and public proficiency remain low. Children—an important future first-responder group—also lack adequate training. Gamification and virtual reality (VR) technologies show potential in enhancing training effectiveness, but research on the needs, acceptability, and functional requirements of gamified CPR training kits from children’s and parents’ dual perspectives is insufficient, providing a realistic basis for this study.

Metaverse technology is transforming health care, offering a wide range of applications in telemedicine, clinical care, education, mental health, and physical well-being.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) face difficulties in being included in activities with their peers due to differences in cognitive abilities and social skills. Video games offer a promising medium to support inclusion, physical activity, and social engagement, but current solutions struggle to provide equitable experiences to heterogeneous groups of users, especially in multiplayer real-time contexts.

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) requires precise intraoperative coordination from operating room nurses. Conventional teaching may be insufficient for junior nurses learning complex UKA surgical cooperation, particularly regarding self-efficacy and cognitive demands. Serious games have emerged as a promising educational tool for nursing training.

Patients with chronic stroke commonly experience motor and cognitive impairments, with diminished quality of life. Their participation in rehabilitation is often limited by long travel distances and low motivation. Given the health benefits of multimodal exercise, with the accessibility and engagement offered by interactive exergames, delivering such interventions in a remote format may help overcome common barriers, and enhance health outcomes.

As a neurodegenerative disorder, Parkinson disease (PD) demonstrates significant prevalence worldwide. As the population ages, the number of patients with PD increases. Individuals with PD are susceptible to varying degrees of cognitive and psychological impairments. Virtual reality (VR)–based therapy is an emerging technology used for cognitive recovery and mental health treatment, yet controversy remains.