While gaming has proven to be a problem for some, research conducted at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that entertaining video games could be the key to fighting depression in older individuals.
This research was featured in a Science Daily release and suggested that exergames that combine game play with exercise significantly improved mood and mental health-related quality of life in older adults with symptoms of subsyndromal depression (SSD).
Dilip V. Jeste, MD, Distinguished Professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at UCSD School of Medicine, Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging, and director of the UC San Diego Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, led the study, which appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
SSD has been found to be more common than major depression in seniors and is associated with substantial suffering, functional disability and an increased use of costly medical services. When older individuals engage in physical activity, their depression is improved. Research has shown that fewer than five percent of older adults meet physical activity recommendations.
"Depression predicts non adherence to physical activity, and that is a key barrier to most exercise programs," Jeste said, in Science Daily. "Older adults with depression may be at particular risk for diminished enjoyment of physical activity, and therefore, more likely to stop exercise programs prematurely."
The study included 19 participates with SSD who each played an exergame on the Nintendo Wii video game system during 35-minute sessions, three times a week. They participated in tennis, bowling, baseball, golf or boxing games.
"The participants thought the exergames were fun, they felt challenged to do better and saw progress in their game play," Jeste said. "Having a high level of enjoyment and satisfaction, and a choice among activities, exergames may lead to sustained exercise in older adults."