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; Zan Gao

doi:10.3390/ijerph16214080

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

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Oct 23;16(21):4080. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16214080.

Authors

Sunyue Ye¹, Zachary C Pope², Jung Eun Lee³, Zan Gao⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Child Development, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314000, Zhejiang, China. yesunyue@zju.edu.cn.
² School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. popex157@umn.edu.
³ Department of Applied Human Sciences, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN 55812, USA. junelee@d.umn.edu.
⁴ School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. gaoz@umn.edu.

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 (X̅_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-minute 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, η² = 0.09, p < 0.01, and MVPA, F(1, 79) = 4.58, η² = 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 minutes; control: -17.59 minutes), but demonstrated lower CRF over time (intervention: +46.73 seconds; control: +61.60 seconds).

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; school intervention; sedentary behavior.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Accelerometry
Cardiorespiratory Fitness / physiology*
Cardiorespiratory Fitness / psychology
Child
Child Behavior / physiology*
Child Behavior / psychology
Exercise / physiology*
Exercise / psychology
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Outcome Assessment, Health Care
School Health Services*
Sedentary Behavior
Students / psychology
Urban Health / statistics & numerical data
Video Games* / psychology