Advances in Gamified Digital Health

Dear Colleagues,

Several review studies have concluded that mobile health (mHealth) apps can effectively promote health behaviors. Nonetheless, outcomes have not been consistent and were mostly short-term because engagement levels with these apps typically collapse after short periods of time. To prevent engagement levels from collapsing, establishing an understanding of how mHealth apps can be effectively designed is essential. 

For years, gamification techniques have been identified as promising strategies to promote engagement levels in different fields. This Special Issue presents advances in gamification solutions in digital health and discusses novel implementations of gamified systems (e.g., wearables, GPS, augmented reality, etc.) to promote health.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Gamification design for digital health apps;
• Personalized gamified digital health apps;
• Gamified digital health apps using wearables or ambient sensors;
• Gamified digital health apps using GPS systems or beacons;
• Gamified digital health apps using augmented reality and virtual reality systems;
• Gamified emotion-sensing tools for health promotion;
• Applications of data science and artificial intelligence in mHealth;
• Digital health app infrastructure, including the link to personal health records. 

We primarily welcome experiments (e.g., quasi-experimental or randomized controlled trials), innovative feasibility studies, and software development contributions. Addressing population health inequalities (e.g., addressing individuals with a low socio-economic status or severe mental illness) in the study design is appreciated. Besides empirical studies, we welcome a relative minority of more theoretical contributions, such as systematic literature reviews, or scoping reviews.

Dr. Pieter M. E. van Gorp
Dr. Raoul Nuijten
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• health
• lifestyle
• behavior change
• gamification
• personalization
• engagement
• mHealth
• eHealth