Digital play and rehabilitation for children and adolescents in hospitals, outpatient departments and rehabilitation centres: A scoping review

PurposeThe growing interest among children in digital play provides new rehabilitation opportunities in hospital settings. There are, however, no published reviews on digital play interventions for the functional rehabilitation of children and adolescents across diagnoses and outcomes in hospital and rehabilitation settings. This scoping review aimed to identify and map the characteristics of digital play for functional rehabilitation in hospital and rehabilitation settings for children and adolescents to inform researchers and clinicians.MethodsStudies including participants aged ≤18 years investigating digital play and functional rehabilitation in hospital and rehabilitation settings were included. Reviews, text and opinion papers, conference papers, case studies, and studies with fewer than five participants were excluded. Five scientific databases were searched. The final search was conducted in October 2022. Four authors performed the study selection and data extraction.ResultsOf 13,663 references, 90 studies met the inclusion criteria. Digital play for rehabilitation was used in clinical settings, including hospitals, outpatient departments, and rehabilitation centres. Some interventions were conducted in human movement laboratories or at home. The relevant studies involved a wide range of disease categories, primarily neurological. A conceptual framework comprising five categories for gaming technologies utilizing digital play and rehabilitation was proposed: (1) traditional gaming platforms, (2) extended reality, (3) robotics and assistive technology, (4) sensors, and (5) rehabilitation systems. One hundred eighty different outcome measures used to evaluate the interventions were identified, almost one-third of which were unvalidated. The studies generally failed to report limitations and barriers to implementation.ConclusionThis scoping review gives a practical overview to assist and inspire healthcare professionals and researchers in digital play and rehabilitation, elucidating technology for rehabilitation within specific clinical contexts. In addition, this scoping review facilitates the exploration of implementation prospects associated with various technologies. Digital play and rehabilitation are primarily initiated in outpatient departments targeting children with neurological diseases. Future studies should investigate the potential of using digital play for the early rehabilitation of hospitalized children with various diseases.