Social Health Games: The Use of Online Games to Decrease Loneliness in Older Adults

This study examines whether social platform games are effective in expanding the social network and decreasing the experienced levels of loneliness in older adults. The newly developed social games will be compared to non-personal games and not playing games.

Rationale: loneliness and social isolation are an increasing problem in older adults with the aging of society. One option to foster social contact is through online games, which allow social interaction at a distance.

Objective: to investigate whether playing social online games has a beneficial effect on subjective loneliness and social network in older adults, compared with playing non-personal games and not playing games.

Study design: 3-arm randomized controlled trial.

Study population: A sample of 300 human volunteers aged 65 and over, who have access to a smartphone and an internet connection. The sample will be evenly distributed across the three groups.

Everybody else is allowed to use the gaming portal; they will form the pool of people that the participants can play with. This pool will be tracked within the gaming portal and posed some questions regarding their fellow players and their experiences loneliness. People aged under 16 can play but will not be tracked.

Intervention (if applicable): Three groups: (I) Intervention group, who will be given access to an app with the social games, and are encouraged to use this app as much as possible, (II) active control group, who will be given access to an app with non-personal games, and are encouraged to use this app as much as possible, (III) passive control group, who will be given access to an app with no games. The platform has a chatbot designed to take the questionnaires.

Comparison between groups (I+II) and (III) will show whether playing games has an effect on loneliness/social network.

Comparison between groups (I) and (II) will show whether the social aspect of games has additional benefits over solo-games on loneliness/social network.

Main study parameters/endpoints: Primary outcome: change in perceived loneliness over time; secondary outcomes: change in (I) social network composition and (II) health-related outcomes over time. All acquired via chatbot questionnaires.

Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: the participants will have to download and install the app. Participants in the social games group will be invited to play games with people from their own network and may plan as often as they want with whom they want, but are encouraged to play at least twice a week. Participants in the non-personal games group will be invited to play games as often as they want but are encouraged to play at least twice a week. All participants are asked to complete questionnaires. In-app questionnaires will be administered monthly: the complete set of questionnaires at baseline, after 6 months, and after 12 months (duration 1.5 hours), and the loneliness questionnaire monthly (duration 10 minutes) Since the questionnaires contain questions on loneliness and mental wellbeing, some might be perceived as sensitive.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Being 65 years or older
* Have access to a smartphone with an internet connection

Exclusion Criteria:

* Visual or cognitive impairments that limit independent use of a mobile phone
* Not being fluent in the Dutch language