Effects of an active arcade gaming intervention on psychosocial outcomes for homebound older adults: a pilot randomised controlled trial
Bayuo, Jonathan, Wong, Arkers Kwan Ching, Wong, Frances Kam Yuet, Chow, Karen Kit Sum, and Agbadi, Pascal (2026) Effects of an active arcade gaming intervention on psychosocial outcomes for homebound older adults: a pilot randomised controlled trial. BMC Geriatrics, 26 (1). 694.
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Abstract
Background: With the rapidly ageing population across the globe, there is a great need for innovative interventions that can improve ageing in place by attenuating psychosocial burden and improving the quality of life of older adults. Although gaming interventions have been observed to be associated with improved psychosocial outcomes among other age groups, its use in the homebound adult population has received limited attention. This study aimed to examine the feasibility and preliminary effects of an Active Arcade gaming intervention on psychosocial outcomes for homebound older adults in Hong Kong. Methods: A pilot randomized controlled trial approach was employed. The participants in the intervention group were paired up to play the game together in scheduled time slots on weekly basis over an 8-week period. The participants in the control group could not access the paired gaming intervention but were encouraged to interact with their caregivers and other family members as usual. Also, two social calls were placed over the 8-week period. There were four sets of outcomes and outcome measures in addition to socio-demographic data: depression, anxiety, loneliness, perceived social support, and quality of life. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to ascertain the effects of the intervention. Results: Sixty older adults participated in the study. Overall, it was feasible to deliver a gaming intervention with no significant challenges regarding recruitment and low attrition rates. Participants in the intervention group demonstrated improved scores regarding social loneliness compared to the control group F(1, 53) = 31.48 (p < 0.05). No statistically significant findings were however observed regarding emotional loneliness, overall loneliness, depression, and anxiety. For social support, statistically significant findings were only observed regarding objective support F(1, 53) = 17.56 (p < 0.05). Also, regarding quality of life, statistically significant finding was observed regarding the physical component, F(1, 53) = 23.01 (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Implementing a gaming intervention for homebound older adults is feasible and may be beneficial in improving their social loneliness, objective support, and physical component of quality of life. Including such innovative intervention in community-based programs for homebound older adults may be helpful to improve psychosocial outcomes.
| Item ID: | 92179 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1471-2318 |
| Keywords: | Active Arcade, Gaming, Homebound, Older Adults |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creati vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Aug 2026 01:04 |
| FoR Codes: | 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4203 Health services and systems > 420301 Aged health care @ 40% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4203 Health services and systems > 420312 Implementation science and evaluation @ 40% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420605 Preventative health care @ 20% |
| SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2002 Evaluation of health and support services > 200202 Evaluation of health outcomes @ 30% 20 HEALTH > 2005 Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health) > 200502 Health related to ageing @ 40% 20 HEALTH > 2001 Clinical health > 200199 Clinical health not elsewhere classified @ 30% |
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