Abstract

Rehabilitation, involving strength and balance exercise, has proven effective as part of a multifactorial intervention to significantly reduce the risk of falling in seniors. However, low adherence to rehabilitation programmes implies that seniors often do not receive the required amount of exercise therapy necessary to reduce their risk of falling. The presented work proposes that digital exercise games (or exergames) can encourage adherence to home rehabilitation by facilitating an enjoyable experience for the user and reduce falls risk by promoting effective quality of movement.

This talk will focus on the user involvement process in an investigation into the limitations of current home rehabilitation practice and how exergame technology can address these limitations. In particular, the following components of the process will be discussed: a) requirements gathering, using interviews and design workshops, b) laboratory and home-based user studies, and c) a 2-month randomised controlled study to evaluate an exergame system in the home setting. The findings from these studies will be discussed, and opportunities for the design of effective rehabilitation technologies will be highlighted.