Experts Say Video Games Could Be Used to Promote Health
Gameplay could be used to
help young patients
understand and manage
conditions, according to
editorial
Author: Sean Kinney | Reviewed by: Joseph V. Madia, MD
Robert Kotas, MD
Robert Kotas, MD, is a boardcertified pediatrician on the medical
staff of Baylor Medical Center at
Garland. He graduated from UT
Southwestern Medical School in
Dallas. His community involvement
also includes promoting
walking/biking to school and eating
healthy.
www.dailyrx.com/people/robert-kotas-md
(dailyRx News) Discussion of how video games
impact young people is usually focused on violent
imagery and other negatives. But some doctors
think the games could be used to push health and
wellbeing in children.
Lynn Fiellin, MD, of Yale University School of
Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues
outlined evidence “that video games can be used for
good.”
In their editorial article, these authors focused on
how the setup of some video games may help build
skills through goal-oriented, rule-based play.
“The role video games may play for good as they
increasingly pervade the landscape of youth
demonstrates the need to examine them fully for
their potential for wider-scale and higher-impact
promotion of health and wellbeing," the authors
wrote.
"Young people spend more time with media than
they do in school — it is the leading activity for
October 5, 2014
children and teenagers other than sleeping,"
explained Robert Kotas, MD, a board-certified
pediatrician at Baylor Medical Center at Garland.
nanobot that goes into the body to fight cancer.
Different levels teach the patient about sticking to
treatments and how those treatments work.
"Although television is still the preferred media
activity, video games have increased substantially.
They are played on gaming consoles, iPads,
smartphones and social networking sites. Almost all
children have experienced video games, and half of
all kids play them daily," Dr. Kotas told dailyRx
News.
“Researchers demonstrated improvements in
knowledge, self-efficacy and adherence to
chemotherapy among those who played Re-Mission
in comparison to a control group,” the authors
wrote.
"As a primary care pediatrician, I discuss video
games and multimedia with my patients daily. We
discuss the negatives associated with video games.
Violence, sex, substance abuse and obesity have all
been linked to gaming. I discuss removing
multimedia from bedrooms, decreasing screen time
to two hours per day, and the importance of
household rules," he said.
Citing work from the Pew Internet and American Life
Project, Dr. Fiellin and team wrote that 97 percent
of kids play computer, Internet, mobile or console
games. Of those, 50 percent played video games
daily.
That widespread adoption could be used to engage
children, particularly when played on a mobile
device that travels with the child, the authors wrote.
"This article has challenged me to also consider the
benefits of certain video games. Their manuscript
discusses 'serious games,' which are games for a
primary purpose other than pure entertainment,"
said Dr. Kotas.
"Their group discusses that certain games can serve
as educational tools for disease management of HIV,
asthma, diabetes and cancer. Virtual reality games
can offer insight into the minds of young people.
Youth have been shown to model real life decisions
practiced in virtual worlds," he said.
Dr. Fiellin and colleagues pointed to the 2006 game
Re-Mission from the HopeLab Foundation for young
cancer patients. In this game, the player controls a
They called for more development of health-oriented
games along with study of effectiveness.
"In my own practice, I have tried to steer my heavy
gamers toward exercise gaming, or 'exergaming,'”
Dr. Kotas said. “This is certainly not a prescription
for weight loss, but has been shown to increase
energy expenditure when compared to sedentary
gaming. Unfortunately, the intensity of most
exercise games is low to moderate, and the bursts
of exercise are short in duration."
Dr. Fiellin and team also wrote that video games
could be used to learn healthy behaviors that
translate into real life. Another component to
explore is using video games to collect patient data,
the authors wrote in their editorial.
"This technology is in its infancy, but I agree with
the authors that emerging evidence shows that
some games have the potential to promote health
and well-being. This is an opportunity to reach out
to youth in their favorite medium," said Dr. Kotas.
"We should support research that is evidence based.
I will continue to recommend monitoring the content
and time spent playing these games. Hopefully, with
time, we may discover a silver lining in this
encompassing digital landscape," he said.
The editorial by Dr. Fiellin and colleagues was
published online Oct. 5 in Pediatrics.
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development and the
National Institutes of Health funded the research.
The authors disclosed no conflicts of interest.