State of the Art and Trends in Research on Gamification and Serious Game in Health: A Scientometric Analysis (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The application of gamification and serious games in health attracts much scholarly attention in the last decade. However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of contributions of gamification and serious games to the growth of scientific research in the health domain. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to obtain insights into the current state and future directions of gamification and serious games in health by analyzing the related academic literature. METHODS This study collected papers related to gamification in health published in the last 10 years from Web of Science Core Collection database. Analyzing tools of CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used to investigate the literature characteristics, including publications growth, related journal and disciplines, author collaboration, as well as impact articles and research trends. RESULTS A total of 1611 bibliographic records on gamification in health were included. Publications increased considerably with 45.9% at an annual compound average growth rate. Studies of gamification in health were conducted with multiple disciplines of knowledge from various journals. Some stable authors' collaboration is formed up. Five impactful papers are selected to reflect the research evolution. The research trends of the area are gamification in rehabilitation, medical education, mobile health, physical activity and mental health. CONCLUSIONS Research of gamification in health is promising and drives towards meaningful healthcare practice and medical education. This study might provide potential implications for future research of gamification in health.