Mitigation of Perceived Pain in Older Adults by Serious Motion-Based Exercise Games (Preprint)
UNSTRUCTURED Many societies face a demographic change that challenges the viability of health and welfare systems. Serious Games for Healthcare as well as Ambient Assisted Living offer support and health benefits for older adults and mitigate the negative effects of the demographic shift. We developed a motion-based serious exercise game for older adults in prototypic Ambient Assisted Living environments. In two user studies outside (n=69) and within (n=64) the AAL context we studied the influence of age, gender, self-efficacy in interacting with technology, and need for achievement on performance, effect of the game, evaluation of the game, and overall acceptance. Both games were evaluated as easy to use and fun to play. Remarkably, both game interventions had a strong pain mitigating effect in older adults (-55%; -66%). Consequently, serious exercise games outside and inside Ambient Assisted Living environments can contribute to individuals' health and well-being and to the stability of health care systems.