Exercise and rehabilitation delivered through exergames in older adults: An integrative review of technologies, safety and efficacy.

Background: There has been a rapid increase in research on the use of virtual reality (VR) and gaming technology as a complementary tool in exercise and rehabilitation in the elderly population. Although a few recent studies have evaluated their efficacy, there is currently no in-depth description and discussion of different game technologies, physical functions targeted, and safety issues related to older adults playing exergames.

Objectives: This integrative review provides an overview of the technologies and games used, progression, safety measurements and associated adverse events, adherence to exergaming, outcome measures used, and their effect on physical function.

Usability and acceptability of balance exergames in older adults: A scoping review.

Serious games (exergames) have the potential to be effective for postural balance and increasing muscle strength. Several games have been developed to increase physical fitness and balance among older adults. However, it is unclear to which degree usability and acceptability of exergames for older adults have been evaluated.

Designing for movement quality in exergames: lessons learned from observing senior citizens playing stepping games.

Background: Exergames are increasingly used as an exercise intervention to reduce fall risk in elderly. However, few exergames have been designed specifically for elderly, and we lack knowledge about the characteristics of the movements elicited by exergames and thereby about their potential to train functions important for fall risk reduction.

Objective: This study investigates game elements and older players' movement characteristics during stepping exergames in order to inform exergame design for movement quality in the context of fall preventive exercise.

The influence of center-of-mass movements on the variation in the structure of human postural sway.

The present article investigates the influence of center-of-mass movements on the variation of the structure in human postural sway. Twelve healthy younger persons performed 60s quiet standing, 60s relaxed standing, and 10 min relaxed standing on two force plates. Center-of-pressure (CoP) and gravitational line (GL) profiles were calculated from the ground reaction forces and moments.