Serious games for balance improvement: A systematic literature mapping

Abstract

Rehabilitation using video games is more motivating than standard rehabilitation. There are several games developed for balance rehabilitation however, they focus on different aspects, apply a variety of assessment and were developed using a myriad of approaches. In order to provide an overview about specially purposed games for balance rehabilitation, a systematic literature mapping was conducted to assess how they were developed, what software evaluation and clinical assessment were applied and the devices they used. A total of 514 studies were analyzed, but only 44 of them satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria. As a result, we verified that most studies used attachment based commercial devices; usability is the most used criteria to evaluate the game and questionnaires are used for it. There is no consensus on clinical assessment metrics and a remarkable lack of design methodology used. From the plethora of serious games found in the literature it is clear that much research need to be done but games can already be considered an acceptable approach for balance promotion.