Examining younger and older adults’ digital gaming habits and health measures

Abstract

Background: Older adults are increasingly playing digital games, not just for therapeutic purposes, but also for personal entertainment. Prior work has shown that such gameplay has a variety of benefits for older adults, including socialization, as well as cognitive, physical, and mental health. Comparing younger and older adults provides a snapshot of gaming and its influence across the lifespan. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine younger and older adults’ digital gaming habits to understand the similarities and differences in how they participate in gaming activities. Furthermore, this study seeks to examine general health measures for each group and to determine if gaming habits affect general health indicators. Five research questions investigated games played, frequency of play, platform use, influences to begin gaming, and how gaming frequency and genre affect participants’ physical and mental health. Methods: A survey was completed by 295 participants. The questionnaire included the CES-Depression, PANAS, and SF-36 scales, as well as demographic questions, questions about games played, frequency of play, influence to begin playing, and platform use. Results: Results show that both younger and older adults play puzzle games and use mobile devices, but each age group also has other digital games and platforms it prefers. Older adults are more likely to game every day or at least once a week, which is more frequently than younger adults. Both groups were most likely to begin playing a specific digital game due to interpersonal influences—friends for younger adults and family members for older adults. Older adults showed better mental health. Younger adults had higher scores for physical health, depression, and negative affect. Gaming frequency and game genre affected health measures to a certain degree. Conclusions: Both marketing and medical professionals can benefit from the results by targeting specific game genres, platforms, and influencers identified. Differences in gaming and its effect on health measures between age groups may be diminishing as more and more gamers mature into older adults.