Three separate studies profiled at today’s 55th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine showed that active video games appeared to be helpful in encouraging young people to exercise.
The first of the studies, done by Gregory Brown, Ph. D., FACSM and his study team, examined energy expenditure for active games compared to sedentary games to see how much more exercise is done when playing on the Nintendo Wii. Wii Boxing, Wii Tennis, and Dance Dance Revolution, the games used in the study, burned two to three times as many calories as traditional handheld games. 17 children around the age of 11 years old were used in the study.
“I would still recommend that kids get outdoors and play sports or dance with friends in the real world as opposed to a virtual one,” Brown said. “But if you’re going to play video games, you might as well play ones that get you active and moving.”
Details on the other two studies are at the jump.
Using Dance Dance Mat Mania and Eye-Toy Boxing, researcher Viki Penpraze conducted a similar study comparing the two games to a handheld game and watching a DVD. Her study showed that the children’s accelerometer counts of total movements per minutes from playing th game were four times that of both of the other activities. 13 children around the age of 10 were used in this study.
“Although enjoyment wasn’t officially part of the study, anecdotally I can say that enjoyment appeared to be much higher in the active games,” Penpraze said. “These active games are more social in nature than watching a DVD or traditional hand-held games. While one player was competing, his or her partner would be cheering for them, which actually might have led to even more energy expenditure.”
Not all games achieved high energy expediture, though. The third study, conducted in The Netherlands, found that Eye-Toy Beach Volleyball and Wii Tennis didn’t reach recommended levels of energy output for children by health experts in the country.
“Parents should search for the most active games possible for their kids, in order to get children in the habit of exercise,” said Sanne de Vries, M.S., lead author on the study. “But any active game is going to be better for your child physically than a hand-held one.”
Tags: ddr, fitness, health, medicine, music, nintendo, rhythm, Sports, study, video games, wii, wii sports
