Gamified Medication Adherence Applications for Chronic Health Conditions: Scoping Review

This scoping review aims to identify the gamification mechanics used in designing gamified mobile health applications to support medication adherence behaviour among people living with chronic conditions. The process of Arksey and O'Malley’s framework was used in conducting this scoping review. Five databases were searched for eligible studies, including PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, and ACM. Data charting characteristics included author, year, country, chronic health condition, application name, research method, data collection instruments, health behaviour change models, gamification elements and mobile health features. Seven studies were examined in this review. In addition to gamification mechanics, health behaviour change and motivation theories were used to design the interventions for chronic disease patients. Interventions reported positive impacts on medication adherence rates, mobile app usage, and patient motivation. All included studies used progression, goal setting, feedback and rewards mechanics incorporated with medication adherence features. Seven gamification mechanics were identified that could be used for medication adherence and health education. This review's findings suggest that medication adherence applications using gamification elements improve adherence levels for different chronic health conditions.