Objective: With an increasing rate of childhood obesity, it is critical to find fun and effective ways of providing children with opportunities to be physically active while at school to mediate this outcome. Using games as a mode of exercise (Exergaming) could be one such way. We aimed to compare the physiologic response and enjoyment of elementary school children when playing Xbox® Kinect® versus participating in regular activities during recess.
Materials and methods: Twenty-four children participated individually once in Kinect and once in regular activity sessions on separate days during recess for the allotted time. Sessions were at least 1 week apart, and the order of the sessions was randomized. During the Kinect session, participants played the Reflex Ridge game. During the regular session, participants engaged in self-selected activities. Energy expenditure, metabolic equivalents of task (METS), time in moderate to vigorous activity, percentage of activity in sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous and very vigorous levels, heart rate, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale were measured for each session and compared using a paired samples t-test.
Results: Significantly greater RPE (P = 0.024), percentage of activity at sedentary (P = 0.019), very vigorous (P < 0.001) levels, and lesser percentage of activity at moderate level (P = 0.008) were noted during the Kinect session.
Conclusion: Playing Kinect was comparable to playing outside with classmates. When necessary, such as in inclement weather, whole-body interactive videogames can be a viable alternative physical activity. However, this has to be validated with a larger sample study.