An Exploratory Study of Health Habit Formation Through Gamification

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.