Strategies for Activating Serious Games to Prevent Dementia in Elderly : Focusing on the Friendliness of the Elderly

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the elderly friendliness of the serious game for dementia prevention and to seek out the influence factors for enhance the friendliness. Research design, data and methodology: It measured the elderly friendliness of the serious game for dementia prevention, run with multi-touchscreens, for 300 elderly people using the Seoul-based General Social welfare centers located at Seoul, and participants evaluated the elder-friendliness of the serious game, by responding to a questionnaire survey. In addition, it analyzed the influence relationship between the elderly friendliness (EF) and the influence factors of the serious game, by setting the factors as the game level (GL), the demand of expectations for demand (DoE) and the prevention & usefulness of cognitive decline (PUCD). Results: the findings show that most of participants positively evaluated the EF of the serious game, regardless of their socio-demographic characteristics. Moreover, it can be found that the more the ‘GL DoE and PUCD’, the more the ‘EF’. The EF was most strongly affected by DoE, followed by PUCD, and then GL Developing and running the serious game by actively reflecting such factors may be one of ways for enhancing the participation in the serious game for dementia prevention and facilitating the sustainable use of it.