Promoting Occupational Health through Gamification and E-Coaching: A 5-Month User Engagement Study

Chao Zhang, Pieter van Gorp, Maxine Derksen, Raoul Nuijten, Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn, Alberto Zanutto, Fabio Melillo and Roberto Pratola
Additional contact information
Chao Zhang: Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Pieter van Gorp: Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Maxine Derksen: Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Raoul Nuijten: Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn: Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Alberto Zanutto: Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Via Sommarive, 18, 38123 Povo, Italy
Fabio Melillo: Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A., Piazzale dell’Agricoltura, 24, 00144 Rome, Italy
Roberto Pratola: Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A., Piazzale dell’Agricoltura, 24, 00144 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Social gamification systems have shown potential for promoting healthy lifestyles, but applying them to occupational settings faces unique design challenges. While occupational settings offer natural communities for social interaction, fairness issues due to heterogeneous personal goals and privacy concerns increase the difficulty of designing engaging games. We explored a two-level game-design, where the first level related to achieving personal goals and the second level was a privacy-protected social competition to maximize goal compliance among colleagues. The solution was strengthened by employing occupational physicians who personalized users’ goals and coached them remotely. The design was evaluated in a 5-month study with 53 employees from a Dutch university. Results suggested that the application helped half of the participants to improve their lifestyles, and most appreciated the role of the physician in goal-setting. However, long-term user engagement was undermined by the scalability-motivated design choice of one-way communication between employees and their physician. Implications for social gamification design in occupational health are discussed.

Keywords: health informatics; occupational health; social gamification; E-coaching; user engagement; user study; behavior change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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