Can Mobile Digital Games Benefit Older Adults’ Health?

Aging adults face many challenges, including declining physical and cognitive abilities, loss of companions and social support, family changes, loss of professional identity, changing lifestyles, and increasing likelihood of developing chronic and debilitating disease. Evidence suggests that digital games can improve older adults’ quality of life through improved physical, cognitive, and social health as well as general psychological wellbeing and emotional health. Benefits demonstrated in research studies have varied with game characteristics, study methodologies, and outcome measures, so generalising across studies is difficult, but our review highlights the potential for mobile digital games to improve older adults’ lives as they increasingly appear on common, accessible mobile devices.