JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Abstract

In the modern days physical activity among the children and adolescents have generally decreased and, in turn, increased the prevalence of obesity and different health issues caused by obesity. There have been several attempts to motivate the young to start exercising and having a healthier lifestyle by making it more engaging and fun. One of the methods of inspiring the young people to get moving stems from video games. Gamification has been trendy in the last century and it is still talked about. The primary objective of the gamification is to decrease the threshold of doing something and repeating it by implementing different gamifying elements like point scoring.

There have been many different attempts to implement gamifying elements into various activities. But in some cases the motivation to exercise wanes once the user’s interest towards the game itself decreases. In this paper I explore the cases of using gamification to improve peoples’ physical activity and promote better health. The objective of this paper is to use a systematic literature review to find out and map the amount of research that has been done about gamification and its impact on the intrinsic motivation for physical activity.