Video gaming in older adults: Resilience to impairment

Background: The International Gaming Study (IGS) is a four-country study that recruited participants from a wide age range across. The breadth of ages recruited provided a unique opportunity to explore gaming patterns and consequences in older adults, a hitherto under-assessed population. The aim of the present study was therefore to understand the impact of videogaming on the wellbeing of older adults and to understand the influence of cultural factors.

Method: The IGS is a cross-sectional survey of individuals who play video games weekly. This study included 955 participants aged 18-94 (M=46.10 [16.19]; 55% female). We stratified our sample into five age categories: (i) 18-25 (10.3%), (ii) 26-35 (21.8%), (iii) 36-45 (20.1%), (iv) 46-65 (31.9%), and (v) >65 (15.8%).

Results: Examining IGS22, we noted no difference across age (p=0.151) in play frequency, but older adults were less likely than young adults (18-25: 73%, >=65: 24%, p<0.001) to play for 4 hours or more on a typical day. Younger people were more likely than older people to play for 3 or more hours in one session (p<0.001), with only a very small proportion of older adults playing for 6 or more hours in single session  (>=65: 2.6% vs 18-25: 19.4%). In young adults aged 18-25, 27% met IGDT-10 cut-off, compared to only 2% in older adults aged >65 years (p<0.001).

Conclusions: Analyses showed that people across the lifespan engage in videogame play. Older individuals were less likely than younger adults to game for long sessions, and the majority did not meet the IGD-10 gaming disorder positive category. Older adults were also much less likely to endorse harm than the younger cohorts.