Is Nintendo Wii an Effective Intervention for Individuals With Stroke? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The addition of Wii gaming to conventional rehabilitation in patients with chronic stroke significantly improved performance in TUG and not in the other physical measures. The pooled effect was small and not beyond the minimal detectable change. However, Wii can be used safely in patients with stroke and participants were less likely to drop out in the Wii group. This review highlights the need for further high-quality studies to demonstrate the efficacy of Wii in stroke rehabilitation.

Virtual Reality and Serious Games in Neurorehabilitation of Children and Adults: Prevention, Plasticity, and Participation

“…98 Since the Cochrane review there are six systematic reviews with meta-analyses on balance and mobility. 99–102,103,104 These reviews (Table 2) have different objectives including the evidence on the Wii, 99 discriminating between VR coupled with treadmills, customized systems that do not involve a treadmill and off-the-shelf games. 103 There is a small but consistent benefit for VR in gait measured by gait speed, 100,102–104 and balance measured by the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Timed Up and Go (TUG).…”

Serious Games: The Future of Psychotherapy? Proposal of an Integrative Model

“…SGs constitute very promising tools in medicine, and preliminary results have shown improvements in therapeutic education for chronic disorders, such as diabetes, or for rehabilitation programmes [1]. …”

Motor Task Performance under Visual and Auditory Feedback Post Stroke: A Randomised Crossover Trial

“…Robotic devices [10][11][12] have demonstrated improvements in motor impairment [10][11][12], but are bulky, complex and costly, which limits both home-use and widespread application [13]. Camera-based solutions, in particular those based on Microsoft ® Kinect ® , have been widely adopted [14], as well as those based on the Nintendo ® Wii ® console [15,16]. While practical, these systems have limitations regarding the accuracy in full kinematic movement tracking [14,17].…”