Game features may get people more active, but the gains did not clearly last.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The 16 studies had 2,407 people aged 9 to 73. Some were under 18, and a few had obesity, type 2 diabetes or stroke.

2. 02

   What they did

   The programmes added points, levels, badges, teams or leaderboards to tracking how active people were, mostly in phone apps. They lasted from one to 24 weeks, and the other group got no programme or a similar one without game features.

3. 03

   What happened

   Game programmes got people more active than other groups did. Daily steps rose about 1,600 a day after dropping two studies, but moderate to vigorous activity did not clearly change. About three months after they ended, activity was not clearly higher, and the abstract's counts do not match the results.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Programmes with game features got people more active than the other groups did, with a small to medium effect.

   • Action: Team up on a shared goaltested
   • Rule: Make it enjoyabletested
   • Rule: Compete or compare with otherstested

   Pooled analysis of 14 studies with 2,197 people · vs people with no programme or a similar one · the authors rated their certainty low · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. Helped

   Game programmes got people more active than similar programmes without games, with a small effect.

   • Action: Team up on a shared goaltested
   • Rule: Make it enjoyabletested
   • Rule: Compete or compare with otherstested

   Pooled analysis of 7 studies with 1,485 people · vs a similar programme without game features · the authors rated their certainty high · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

3. No difference

   Game programmes did not clearly keep people more active after they ended, unless one study was dropped.

   • Action: Team up on a shared goaltested
   • Rule: Make it enjoyabletested
   • Rule: Compete or compare with otherstested

   Pooled analysis of 6 studies · vs people with no programme or a similar one · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

4. Helped

   Game programmes got people about 1,600 more steps a day than the other groups, after dropping two studies.

   • Action: Team up on a shared goaltested
   • Rule: Make it enjoyabletested
   • Rule: Compete or compare with otherstested

   Pooled analysis of 7 studies with 1,235 people · vs people with no programme or a similar one · behaviour was recorded · the authors rated their certainty moderate · ⚠ the studies disagreed a lot; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source