An Exploratory Study of Health Habit Formation Through Gamification

TL;DR

This study explores how gamification elements in mobile health apps influence the formation of healthy habits, showing that game mechanics can enhance user engagement and promote behavior change.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into the impact of gamification on health habit formation, an area with limited prior research.

Findings

Gamification elements increase user engagement in health apps.

Different game mechanics have varying effects on habit formation.

Adding game elements enhances user experience and motivation.

Abstract

Promotion of healthy habits help maintain and improve people health, reduce disease risks, and manage chronic illness. Regular healthy activities like walking, exercising, healthy eating, drinking water or taking medication on time require forming the new habits. Gamification techniques are promising in promoting healthy behaviors and delivering health promotion information. However, using gaming elements such as badges, leader boards, health-related challenges in mobile applications to motivate and engage people to change health behavior is quite new. In this exploratory study, we aimed to assess how game mechanics and dynamics influence formation of a habit through the mobile application. Results indicate the different level of user engagement depending on the presence of gamification elements and suggest that there is value in adding game elements to the user experience.