Gamification means using “game elements to motivate participants to change their behavior,” explained LDI Senior Fellow Alexander Fanaroff, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) and a core faculty member in the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE).
Fanaroff was the lead author of a major study in Circulation last year called Be Active. It found that people at high risk of cardiovascular disease who used fitness trackers in a gamified setting for 12 months increased their daily steps by almost 2,000. Using those figures, Fanaroff estimates that the boost in exercise from the intervention would translate to a 6% lower risk of death from any cause and a 10% reduced risk of mortality from stroke or heart attack. Fanaroff’s co-authors included LDI Senior Fellows Neel Chokshi, Louise Russell, Dylan Small, and Kevin Volpp. The study group recently received a $25 million grant to extend the research project.
“Gamification is a strategy with significant potential,” said Mohan Balachandran, Executive Director of the Way to Health team at the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation and CHIBE.