Active methodologies in health. Scientific production on gamification in health sciences

Introduction. Gamification is based on the use of game elements, designs and structures in non-leisure contexts. Although there are many studies that prove the effectiveness of this methodology, no study has been found that has researched, analysed or organised scientific production on gamification in the sphere of health, which is what this paper offers. The purpose of the study is to analyse research articles on gamification and health, using sciencemetric and content analysis methodologies. Materials and Methods. An analysis was carried out on articles from the Web of Science database containing the words ‘gamification’ and ‘health’ using sciencometric methods and advance text analysis via content evaluation. In addition, an analysis of the literature was carried out among the most cited articles on the subject in order to extract the most current topics with the greatest scientific impact. Results. The remaining analysis comes from the 309 articles obtained. It shows the accumulation of different prestigious scientific journals and specific authors as well as the hegemonic predominance of the English language. The analyzed articles mostly presented case studies which focus on use of apps, change of habits and influence of gamification on the health training processes. Conclusions. The results showed a reduced group of topics currently studied, about all the studies of mobile applications, and the growth for the coming years, to which these types of investigations can be considered as a field of study relevant for the scientific community in the short and medium term.