Gamification and Health in a Holistic Perspective

Introduction

Gamification is a field of research and practice that aims to use the power of games to ensure participation, improve user experience and maintain participation by replacing extrinsic motivation with intrinsic motivation by using game design elements in non-game contexts (Deterding et al., 2011; Huotari & Hamari, 2012). Gamification has become a used application in different fields, such as education, health, management, marketing, finance (da Silva, 2021). Organizations use gamification for reasons such as creating brand loyalty, increasing the frequency of purchases, and creating customer satisfaction. Different industries have been using game elements to achieve their business goals. The emergence of gamification as a trend in different sectors attracts the attention of academics, educators and practitioners in various fields. Gamification provides several benefits, especially to organizations, such as cheaper technology, personal data monitoring and the prevalence of the gaming environment, along with the digital transformation. Through the digital transformation in recent years, gamification has created new opportunities that can benefit even industries previously unrelated to gaming. Particularly in the health field, gamification is increasingly recognized as a valuable tool to encourage continued use of a system or to encourage certain health behaviors. Gamification aims to encourage physical activity, smoking cessation, health education, improvement of mental health, healthy eating habits and similar systems that can positively affect human health. Considering the health effects and the use of gamification for health, it is necessary to develop methods that support the quality of human life, healthy nutrition, reduction of environmental pollution, or all issues that need to be raised.

Studies on gamification have focused on proposing theoretically grounded frameworks for designing gamified systems or demonstrating the positive effects of gamification (AlMarshedi, Wills & Ranchhod, 2015; Hamari et al., 2017; Matallaoui et al., 2017; Patrício, Moreira & Zurlo, 2020). It is seen that the negative aspects of gamification are considered only as side notes (Johnson et al., 2016). Some researchers have begun exploring the negative aspects of gamification (Hyrynsalmi et al., 2017; Toda et al., 2017; Yang & Li, 2021).

Gamification is an issue that needs to be addressed in line with its intended use because besides the benefits that organizations give to the individual and society by using gamification, there are also damages. Organizations must consider consumer benefit and social interests besides their own benefit. This chapter addresses gamification and health from the perspective of the organization, individual and society, and to evaluate the health effects of gamification and the use of gamification for health. Studies mention the negative and positive effects of gamification for health (Ahtinen et al., 2013; Reynolds et al., 2013). As a result, research still lacks a comprehensive overview of the undesirable side effects of gamification in health. For this reason, it is important to consider the use of gamification for health and the positive and negative aspects of gamification practices in terms of individual and public health.

In this section, the use of gamification in the field of health is discussed in general terms. First, the definition and conceptual framework of gamification were drawn. In this context, the academic history of gamification was presented. Since this section covers gamification and health, the concept of gamification was not associated with any theory. On the other hand, the literature on gamification was evaluated within the scope of health. Afterwards, the gamification and health behavior literature was systematically reviewed. In this context, the positive and negative aspects of gamification on health were included without making any comparisons. In the conclusion, suggestions for future research were made and recommendations were given to practitioners.