ReviewHealth psychology and behavioral medicine2026
The effects of exergaming on executive functions in children with ADHD: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
Review in Health psychology and behavioral medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Purpose: A growing number of studies have investigated the effectiveness of exergaming on the executive functions (EFs) in children with ADHD. Whilst some studies have shown beneficial effects, other studies provide mixed effects and there has yet to be a focused synthesis of the literature on this topic. Methods: A systematic review (PROSPERO; CRD42024549395) was conducted following PRISMA guidance, drawing from eligible studies across eleven databases. Studies were screened based on eligibility criteria by two independent reviewers. Risk of bias (Cochrane ROB2) and certainty of evidence (GRADE criteria) were independently assessed by two reviewers. The Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) using vote counting based on direction of effect was conducted on studies with incomplete data. Separate meta-analyses were performed for each EF process using random-effect meta-analysis. Results: A total of 2,263 studies were identified. After removing duplicates and non-RCTs automatically, 1,546 studies were screened by title and abstract resulting in 35 full texts being retained for detailed screening with 4 studies meeting all inclusion criteria. Two studies in the SWiM showed beneficial effects on overall EFs. Meta-analyses on two studies found exergaming was beneficial for inhibition (SMD = -5.07; 95%-CI [-14.08, 3.95]), working memory (SMD = -0.31; 95%-CI [-0.88, 0.26]), and cognitive flexibility (SMD = -0.84; 95%-CI [-1.50, -0.19]). The mean drop-out rate was 13.82% indicating high adherence. Implementation data identified that a console, game license, a room, television, and supervision from trainers/parents are needed to implement exergaming across different settings and contexts. Conclusion: The results indicate that although the direction of effects shows positive trends, the evidence remains insufficient and imprecise to determine the clear conclusion whether exergaming can increase EFs and adherence to PA in children with ADHD. Future research with high-quality measurement of the outcome and completely reporting outcome data is necessary to strengthen the evidence and to inform the implementation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.