2 113 REVIEW OF APPLIED & CASUAL GAMES FOR MENTAL HEALTH Paper Country Target group N % male Age, mean (SD) Age range Intervention arms Intervention characteristics Assessments Variables measured Findings relevant for current review Mewton et al. 2020 Australia Youth with high risk for development of a mental illness based on elevated levels of personality risk factors 228 25.0c 18.55 (2.50) 16-24 years 1. Executive functioning training; game-like computerised tasks provided by Lumosity. 2. Control cognitive training focused on other cognitive abilities; game-like computerised tasks provided by Lumosity. 1-2. Twenty-five 40-minute sessions (one session per day, five days per week, over five weeks). Pre, post, 3-, 6- and 12months FU. Overall psychopathology / problem behaviours, day-to-day functioning, executive functioning (working memory, task shifting, inhibitory control), risky drinking; training compliance. Regardless of intervention group, psychopathology increased and day-to-day functioning decreased over the 12-months FU. Participants in the intervention group improved more than those in the control group on working memory (although the effect was not statistically significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons). Nekar et al. 2023 Korea Children with a developmental disability diagnosis or exhibiting some of its symptoms**** 36 58.3 12.43 (1.23) 6-16 years 1. Cooperative exergames group. 2. Competitive exergames group. 3. Solitary exergames group. All conditions: Two 30-minute session per week, for 8 weeks. Two exergames were used in each group. Pre and post. Cognition (orientation, memory, attention, visual perception, language, and high-level cognition), anxiety symptoms. All groups showed improvements in memory, attention and visual perception. Only the cooperative exergames group showed significant improvements in language and all anxiety subscales. The competitive exergame group showed improvements in social phobia and the solitary exergames group showed improvements in physical injury and general anxiety. Notes. Intervention arms and variables measured in bold are included in the forest plot. All studies used a regular randomised controlled trial (RCT) design, unless otherwise stated. FU = follow-up; NA = not available and/or could not be obtained; TAU = treatment as usual. a Gender and mean age are reported for 147 included/analysed participants (and not for the total randomised participants). b Number of males and females reported in the concerned paper is inconsistent. The current table includes the value from the body of the concerned paper. c Remaining participants were 74.6% female, and 0.4% (n=1) other gender. d Gender and mean age are reported for 47 included/analysed participants (and not for the total randomised participants). * Participating children had the following diagnoses: 21.1% ADHD, 8.2% ASD, 14.3% Cerebral palsy, 13.6% Mental retardation, 35.4% unclassified. ** Crossover RCT. *** Some of the participating children exhibited clinical levels of social problems (19%), externalising problems (20%) and/or internalising problems (27%). **** Participating children had the following diagnoses: 58.3% ASD, 13.9% ADHD, 13.9% Obsessive-compulsive disorder, 13.9% Intellectual disorder.
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