Table 3.

The role of serious games in included papers.

Characteristics		Serious game objective
		Cancer prevention (n=8)	Cancer care (n=55)
Target outcome, n (%)a
	Serious game preference [7,55,56,62,63,67,68,70,75,79,84-86,90,92-98,101-104,108,110,111]	4 (50)	24 (44)
	Treatment adherence [69,95,101]	0 (0)	3 (6)
	Cancer education [34,55,56,80,95,101,105,106,109]	3 (38)	6 (11)
	Healthy behavior promotion [42,54,57,60,65,74,80,95,96,101,107]	1 (13)	10 (18)
	Symptom management [35,42,52,58,61,64,65,71-73,76,77,81-84,86-89,91,92,94,97,99,100,104,105]	0 (0)	28 (51)
	Symptom reporting [59,66,75,78,79,90,102]	0 (0)	7 (13)
Target symptom, n (%)a
	Psychological symptomsb [61,71-73,76,77,81,83,89,92,94,97,100]	0 (0)	13 (24)
	Physical symptomsc [35,42,52,58,65,81,83,86,99,104]	0 (0)	10 (18)
	Cognitive symptomsd [42,58,84,87,88,104]	0 (0)	6 (11)
	General side effectse [73,105]	0 (0)	2 (4)
	Otherf [64,82,87,91,104,105]	0 (0)	6 (11)

^aNote that the frequency numbers may not add up to the total number of studies (N=63), as some studies included more than one category. Percentages may also not add up to 100% due to rounding.

^b“Psychological symptoms” includes papers that addressed “anxiety,” “depression,” “distress,” “emotional state,” “psychosocial symptoms,” or “psychological symptoms” in this study.

^c“Physical symptoms” includes papers that addressed “endurance,” “fatigue,” “motor performance,” “nausea,” “pain,” or “physical activity” in this study.

^d“Cognitive symptoms” includes papers that addressed “cognitive behavioral effects,” “cognitive function,” “functional capacity,” or “reading deficits” in this study.

^e“General side effects” includes papers that addressed “side effects of chemotherapy” or “symptoms” (nonspecific) in this study.

^f“Other” includes papers that addressed “activities of daily living,” “daily performance,” “quality of life,” or “sleep” in this study.