Comparing energy expenditure, exertion, and enjoyment of adolescents playing exergames

Significance: Current guidelines suggest adolescents accumulate at least one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) daily. Unfortunately, 12.5 million children (>17%) are overweight in the United States today and the majority of these youngsters are not getting their recommended dose of physical activity daily. Furthermore, research shows that American teenagers are spending a lot more time in front of TV’s and computers than being physically active and 87% of 8 to 17-year-old children play video games at home. The problem is, other than organized sports, physical education classes and occasional after school programs there are not many alternative and enjoyable opportunities for children to obtain the recommended 60 minutes of MVPA daily. However, alternatives such as exergames (video fitness games) are gaining popularity, may have the potential to help our nation’s obesity crisis if properly implemented. Exergames require physical activity and moving your body as the controller rather than a traditional hand-held game controller. Purpose: The purpose of these studies was to determine the differences of time spent in MVPA, energy expenditure, ratings of perceived exertion and enjoyment while playing three fitness video games (XaviX tennis, EyeToy Kinetic, and Dance Dance Revolution). Methods: A series of studies was conducted on 23-27 adolescents ranging from 14 to 18-years-old from a community health center in Northeastern USA. Participants played each of the three games for at least fifteen minutes consecutively on the first day and up to an hour on three separate occasions. Participants wore a heart-rate monitor and Sensewear Armband, and at the end of each session they reported their level of enjoyment and iv perceived exertion. Analysis: Using separate one-way repeated-measures ANOVAs on game conditions, differences were determined for duration, percentage of time spent in MVPA, perceived exertion, energy expenditure, and across five motives for physical activity (enjoyment, competence, fitness, appearance, social). Correlation analyses and Bland Altman plots were conducted to compare energy expenditure data from heart rate monitors and Sensewear Armbands. Results: Of the 27 participants that completed the studies, 82.5% were Non-Hispanic White, 14.9% were Non-Hispanic Black, and 3.7% were Hispanic of any race. All participants, ten females and 17 males, completed all portions of the protocol that was approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board. Study 1: ETK elicited a significantly higher mean heart rate, percentage of time spent in MVPA, and level of enjoyment. Both ETK and DDR were perceived to be more strenuous than XVT; Study 2: Given up to sixty minutes to play, ETK was played the longest, elicited the highest mean MVPA and was enjoyed the most. XVT recorded the lowest RPE and participants rated fitness a reason why they played ETK more than XVT; Study 3: Across all games and conditions (phase 1 vs. phase 2), ETK was consistently played at higher intensities (calories, calories per minute). In comparing calories and calories per minute measured by heart rate monitor and Sensewear Armband, Pearson correlation coefficients determined strong associations in Phase 2, and Bland Altman plots showed good agreement in the assessment of calories for both Phases. Conclusion: All three exergames were played at moderate to vigorous intensity levels, and were found to be enjoyable despite higher levels of perceived exertion. The SenseWear ArmBand was also found to be a comparable device to measure calories and calories per minute while playing exergames. The exploration to use exergames to decrease sedentary time v and assist community leaders, educators, and parents in providing healthy alternative programming is suggested.