Senior living communities and senior centers all love to play bingo. It turns out that Bingo may actually be good for your health. From engaging the brain to hand-eye coordination and more, there’s more to Bingo than meets the eye. Learn more about why seniors love Bingo and how playing Bingo can actually benefit senior health. Plus, find a digital alternative to the game board version of bingo called InformaTV™ Bingo.
Reasons Seniors Love Bingo
1) An opportunity to be social
First and foremost, Bingo is a social game. It brings people together from all over the community to physically be together in the same room, doing the same thing. Players can chat with each other while numbers are being called and, even for the most introverted seniors, striking up a conversation is made easier by having a common interest and a common goal of winning.
2) Healthy competition
Bingo is an engaging and fun game that can be competitive in a fun way, knowing skill has very little to do with the outcome.
3) An all-inclusive game
Bingo is an all-inclusive game meaning that a player does not have to be mobile to play. Seniors in wheelchairs with physical limitations can still play the game. It’s even a great game for those in the early stages of dementia.
Benefits of Bingo for Seniors
As it turns out, a good old-fashioned game of Bingo packs major mental and physical health benefits for seniors.
1) Increases Mental Flexibility and Alertness
Bingo requires its players to be mentally alert and aware of the numbers on their card, what the announcer is calling, and requires a great deal of mental flexibility and alertness to stay in the game. In fact, research has shown that Bingo players were faster and more accurate than non-Bingo players when it comes to mental speed, memory, and the ability to gain information from their environments. It is also suspected that the long-term mental activity seniors gain from games like bingo can improve cognitive abilities.
2) Exercises Hand-Eye Coordination
Bingo can help seniors maintain hand-eye coordination even as reflexes and coordination generally decline with age. Bingo is a fast-paced game that requires players to mark their cards as numbers are called. Because of the fast-pace and repetitive nature of the game, studies have shown that playing the game can improve hand-eye coordination, which, in turn, can delay the onset of mobility issues and other age-related obstacles.
3) Accelerated Healing
Bingo is a social game that can reduce the time required to heal from an injury, illness, or surgery. A recent study found that seniors who played games like Bingo during a recovery period following a surgery or other illness had shorter hospital stays and faster healing times. The study also found that seniors who played Bingo or similar games had a decreased risk of depression.
4) Laughter is the best medicine!
Anyone who has seen a Bingo game knows it comes with a lot of laughter and when it comes to aging. Studies have shown that laughter decreases stress hormones, increases immunity, and triggers endorphins, the body’s feel-good chemicals. Laughter can also lower blood pressure, improve cardiac health, and produce a general sense of well-being.
5) Socialization
Bingo increases face-to-face contact with others and having an organized activity can pull even introverts into a fast-paced game. One study found that face-to-face contact is actually like a vaccine, making us more resilient to stress, improve memory, and even lessen pain. Bingo is usually a weekly commitment that seniors look forward to, and engaged seniors will develop relationships and friendships during these games that can lead to other commitments, outside of the Bingo game.
About InformaTV Bingo
Plug in the InformaTV Bingo using the included HDMI cable into your TV’s HDMI port and you’re ready to go! The bright, attractive casino-style screen displays the drawn bingo numbers on the master board on your TV screen in a large and easy-to-read format. Use the included remote control to manually draw the numbers or set to “auto” to automatically draw the numbers on a selectable timer letting you play the bingo game without intervention to free you up to do other things. Uses your TV’s audio system to clearly announce the drawn numbers with a choice of a male or female voice setting especially helpful for the visually impaired. Choose the bingo game you wish to play (eg. Outer square, 4 corners etc) by selecting the dropdown menu. Recommended to use with 40” and up television with HDMI input.
InformaTV Comes to S&S
Dave Lewis of Briteworx visited S&S and taught us about the latest InformaTV Bingo game – a great item for our healthcare customers. With the Informa Bingo, we learned how activity directors are able to leave their bench and have a bingo game play on the TV as they plan their next activity or grab a bite for lunch.
We had the opportunity to check out all the different formats, different voice call-outs and the different games of Bingo you can play with just a hard-drive and an HDMI cord. Dave’s time here with us was very upbeat while showing us the features the Bingo game and the future of other possible games that could be added in the near future to assist with more healthcare programming.
Check out this digital alternative way to play bingo with your residents at your senior living facility! We know it will add value to your Activty Program.
