Design and assessing the usability of an interactive digital game in assisting the older adult's prescriptive medication behavior

Abstract

Taking prescriptive medicine has been a major daily routine for many older adults. However, misused medication behavior has been reported as a major safety issue for senior welfare subject to the well-documented decline in cognitive aging. Game-based learning has been demonstrated as an effective media in enhancing cognitive functions but mostly in the fields with young adults as the subject. The present study thus aimed to investigate the usability of digital games in improving the medication behavior for older adults. The results indicated that the older subject who received the game-based learning significantly outperformed the counterpart who received the traditional treatment. Implications for designing appropriate learning media for the older adult's medication behavior were raised. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.