JMIR Serious Games

With rapid urbanization, the proliferation of densely arranged buildings and increasingly homogeneous architectural designs has made disorientation and navigation difficulties more common, especially for older adults. Meanwhile, advances in virtual reality technology now allow researchers to create highly immersive navigation games, offering opportunities for assessing cognitive abilities and examining how environmental factors shape navigation behavior.

As survival rates for children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer improve, managing treatment-related side effects is increasingly important. Enhancing physical activity levels has been shown to be effective in reducing some of these effects. Digital interventions, such as mobile apps, offer engaging tools to promote physical activity in young populations.

Gaming disorder (GD) is an emerging issue that leads to significant impairment, yet existing tools for measuring withdrawal symptoms in GD are limited and often fail to capture its multidimensional nature. Most current measures rely on single-item assessments or adapted tools from substance use disorders, overlooking cognitive, behavioral, and physiological components. A comprehensive, multidimensional questionnaire is needed to more accurately assess withdrawal in GD, aiding in early detection and intervention.

Acute traumatic musculoskeletal injuries often result in persistent pain and disability despite physical recovery. Virtual reality (VR) provides an innovative approach for overcoming treatment barriers and may help address psychological risk factors for persistent pain and disability. However, the neural mechanisms underlying VR, particularly in subacute orthopedic pain, are insufficiently understood.

Virtual reality (VR) has proven effective in delivering nonpharmacological interventions to reduce acute and chronic pain. For the treatment of nonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP), it offers benefits over traditional treatment options, such as the possibility of gamified movement exercises with real-time performance feedback and virtual embodiment. We implemented a novel immersive VR intervention (a serious game) that combined these elements.

Physical activity plays a central role in the course and progression of chronic conditions in older adults. However, individuals within this population tend to have an inactive lifestyle. Exergaming, which is defined as the integration of physical activity with game-based elements, offers a promising approach to promote physical activity in individuals with chronic conditions. Despite its potential, limited evidence exists on how specific game elements influence behavioral and psychological outcomes in this population.

Dysphagia is a prevalent health issue affecting quality of life. Gamified swallowing exercises have the potential to enhance swallowing function and adherence in adults with dysphagia. Nevertheless, such evidence has not yet been systematically synthesized.

Nature experiences may have a positive impact on mental health. Innovative alternatives, such as immersive virtual reality (iVR), can have similar effects. In previous studies on embodying a tree in virtual reality, connectedness to nature has been induced in healthy participants and shown to be influenced by compassion. Compassion and empathy, however, can be altered in psychiatric disorders, leading to impaired relationships with fellow human beings. The potential effect of nature experiences in iVR on compassion, empathy, and nature connectedness in mental health disorders has not yet been investigated.

Exergaming can promote adolescent health by encouraging repetition of game-related tasks, potentially contributing to academic success by developing motor and cognitive skills. Studies have highlighted the influence of exergaming on motor skill learning but have not clarified its effects on general motor coordination. Other studies suggest that exergames may influence math success, particularly with nonmathematical, dance-based exergames, possibly through mental rotation or general motor coordination training. However, the influence of a single exergaming sequence on these abilities and on math achievement in the same participants has not been studied.

Game elements may inform the design of both simulations and games. However, evidence on how individual game elements inform the design of military trauma training simulations and their educational purpose remains limited.

Childhood and adolescent malnutrition, encompassing undernutrition and overnutrition, poses significant global health challenges, necessitating comprehensive dietary assessment tools. Existing dietary assessment methods, such as 24-hour dietary recalls (24HR), often fail to capture eating behaviors and food preferences.

Immersive virtual reality (VR) is promising in stroke rehabilitation; it is believed to promote motivation and intervention adherence among patients. However, existing work often lacks a structured assessment of user experience over a longer period of time.