Robert Wood Johnson Foundation continues to support health games research.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) just announced that more than $1.85 million in grants for research that will offer unprecedented insight into how digital games can improve players’ health behaviors and outcomes. With funding from RWJF’s Health Games Research national program, nine research teams across the country will conduct extensive studies to discover how games can improve the health of the public.

Health Games Research is supported by an $8.25 million grant from RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio, which funds innovative projects that may lead to breakthrough improvements in the future of health and health care. The national program, which conducts, supports, and disseminates research to improve the quality and impact of health games, is headquartered at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  It is directed by Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., communication researcher in the university’s Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research and a leading expert in the research and design of interactive media for learning
and health behavior change.

“Digital games are interactive and experiential, and so they can engage people in powerful ways to enhance learning and health behavior change, especially when they are designed on the basis of well-researched strategies,” said Lieberman.  “The studies funded by Health Games Research will provide cutting-edge, evidence-based strategies that designers will be able to use in the future to make their health games more effective.”

The winning research teams.

As always, competition was tough with 185 groups competing for nine spots.  Each winner has been awarded between $100,000 and $300,000 to lead one- to two-year studies of digital games that engage players in physical activity and/or motivate them to improve how they take care of themselves through healthy changes in lifestyle; prevention behaviors; cognitive, social or physical skills; chronic disease self-management; and/or adherence to a medical treatment plan.  And without further ado, the winners!

1. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)  Reward Circuitry, Autism and Games that Teach Social Perceptual Skills—tests effects of facial perception games on the brain activity and facial perception skills of 8- to 12-year-old children who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
2. George Washington University (Washington, DC)  Active-Adventure: Investigating a Novel Exergaming Genre in Inner City School Physical Education Programs—compares physical, psychological and behavioral effects of three activities: (1) playing Winds of Orbis, a video game that involves an upper and lower body workout as the player moves in order to control a character’s movements in the game; (2) playing Dance Dance Revolution, a popular video game that provides a lower body workout as players dance on a pad that detects their dance steps; and (3) engaging in traditional physical education activities at school.
3. Georgetown University (Washington, DC)  Wii Active Exergame Intervention for Low-Income African- American Obese and Overweight Adolescents—assigns obese and overweight urban high school students to (1) play the Wii Active competitively after school with the goal of lowering their body mass index (BMI), (2) play the Wii Active cooperatively in a team after school with the goal of helping each other reduce their BMI, or (3) play with no access to Wii Active  after school (control condition).
4. Long Island University (Brooklyn, NY)  Dance Video Game Training and Falling in Parkinson’s Disease—compares the use of a commercially available dance pad video game, Dance Dance Revolution, to two traditional treatment options that help people with Parkinson’s Disease reduce their risk of falling by increasing their balance, strength, endurance, motor coordination and visual-motor integration.
5. Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)  Buddy Up! Harnessing Group Dynamics to Boost Motivation to Exercise. Research has found that people will work harder with a partner in a strenuous physical task than when working alone, especially if the partner is moderately better at the task.  This study provides a virtual partner that engages in exercises with participants on the Eye Toy: Kinetic camera-based video game.
6. Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)  Short-Term and Long-Term Effectiveness of Exergames for Young Adults—investigates effects of the Mount Olympus game, a 3D fantasy role-playing game that requires players to move their upper and lower body in order to control their character’s movements throughout the world of the game.
7. Teachers College, Columbia University (New York, NY)  Lit: A Game Intervention for Nicotine Smokers—develops and evaluates a smoking reduction game delivered on a mobile phone.
8. University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco, CA)  A Video Game to Enhance Cognitive Health in Older Adults.  This study aims to improve these and other related cognitive skills by using a driving game in which players practice paying attention to relevant information, such as traffic signs, and ignoring irrelevant information, such as billboards.
9. University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) Robot Motivator: Towards Adaptive Health Games for Productive Long-Term Interaction — examines the influence of virtual social characters on people’s motivation to exercise.