Effects of School-Based Exergaming on Urban Children’s Physical Activity and Cardiorespiratory Fitness: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Sunyue Ye, Zachary C. Pope, Jung Eun Lee and Zan Gao
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Sunyue Ye: Institute of Child Development, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314000, China
Zachary C. Pope: School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Jung Eun Lee: Department of Applied Human Sciences, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
Zan Gao: School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-9

Abstract: Background: Modern-day technology is appealing to children. Few studies, however, have conducted longitudinal analyses of a school-based exergaming program’s effect on physical activity (PA) behaviors and fitness in children. Therefore, this study examined the longitudinal effect of an 8-month school-based exergaming intervention on children’s objectively-measured PA and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). Materials and Methods: Eighty-one fourth grade students ( X ¯ age = 9.23 ± 0.62; 39 girls; 54.3% African American, 30.9% Non-Hispanic White, 14.8% other) participated in this study from 2014–2015. The intervention school’s children participated in a once-weekly 50-min exergaming intervention during recess throughout the school year, while the control school continued regular recess. Children’s in-school PA and sedentary behavior (SB) were measured with ActiGraphGT3X+ accelerometers, with CRF assessed via the half-mile run. All measurements were taken at baseline, mid-intervention (four months) and post-intervention (eight months). Repeated-measures two-way ANCOVAs using age and race as covariates were conducted to examine between-school differences over time for SB, light PA (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and CRF. Results: Significant time by group interactions were observed for LPA, F (1, 79) = 7.82, η 2 = 0.09, p < 0.01, and MVPA, F (1, 79) = 4.58, η 2 = 0.06, p < 0.05, as LPA increased among the control group, while MVPA increased among intervention group. Children in both groups experienced decreased SB during the intervention (intervention: −7.63 min; control: −17.59 min), but demonstrated lower CRF over time (intervention: +46.73 s; control: +61.60 s). Conclusions: Observations suggested that school-based exergaming implementation may be effective in increasing children’s MVPA and decreasing their SB over the course an academic year (i.e., ~eight months). More research is needed, however, to discern how modifications to school-based exergaming might also promote improved CRF in children.

Keywords: accelerometers; active video games; physical activity; sedentary behavior; school intervention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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