Active Video Games Improve Muscular Fitness and Motor Skills in Children with Overweight or Obesity

Abstract

(1) Background: Childhood obesity is an important public health problem. Children with overweight or obesity often tend to show the pediatric inactivity triad components; these involve exercise deficit disorder, pediatric dynapenia, and physical illiteracy. The aim of the study was to examine the influence of an active video games (AVG) intervention combined with multicomponent exercise on muscular fitness, physical activity (PA), and motor skills in children with overweight or obesity. (2) Methods: A total of 29 (13 girls) children (10.07 ± 0.84 years) with overweight or obesity were randomly allocated in the intervention group (AVG group; n = 21) or in the control group (CG; n = 8). The intervention group performed a 5-month AVG training using the Xbox 360® with the Kinect, the Nintendo Wii®, dance mats, and the BKOOL® interactive cycling simulator, combined with multicomponent exercise, performing three sessions per week. The control group continued their daily activities without modification. Weight, PA using accelerometers, and motor competence using the Test of Gross Motor Development 3rd edition were measured. Muscular fitness was evaluated through the Counter Movement Jump height, maximal isometric strength of knee extension and handgrip strength, and lean mass using Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry. Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed rank tests were performed. The biserial correlation coefficients (r) were calculated. Spearman’s correlation coefficients among PA, muscular fitness, and motor competence variables were also calculated. (3) Results: The AVG group significantly increased their knee extension maximal isometric strength (4.22 kg; p < 0.01), handgrip strength (1.93 kg; p < 0.01), and jump height (1.60 cm; p < 0.01), while the control group only increased the knee extension maximal isometric strength (3.15 kg; p < 0.01). The AVG group improved motor competence and light physical activity (p < 0.05) and decreased sedentary time (p < 0.05). Lean mass improved in both AVG group and CG (p < 0.05). Lastly, the percentage of improvement of motor skills positively correlated with the percentage of improvement in vigorous PA (r = 0.673; p = 0.003) and the percentage of improvement in CMJ (r = 0.466; p = 0.039). (4) Conclusions: A 5-month intervention combining AVG with multicomponent training seems to have positive effects on muscle fitness, motor competence, and PA in children with overweight or obesity.

Effectiveness of multiple eHealth-delivered lifestyle strategies for preventing or intervening overweight/obesity among children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Subsequently, the following articles were excluded: 16 articles with no full text or containing only the abstract, 110 studies that did not report appropriate outcomes, 25 studies that included electronic technology intervention in the control group, 90 studies where participants’ age was not within the range of 6–18 years, 108 articles with study design that did not meet the inclusion criteria (i.e., studies that were not RCTs or were 3/4-arm RCTs), and 4 studies that did not use electronic technology interventions. Finally, 40 ( 25 – 63 ) double-arm RCT studies were included for further meta-analysis (see Figure 1 for details).…”

Are active video games useful in the development of gross motor skills among non-typically developing children? A meta-analysis

“…The physical activities in these games include motor tasks that involve a wide range of sensory feedback, and visual feedback is dominant [ 52 ]. Although AVGs can simulate rich real-world scenes, tactile stimulation is difficult to fully practise and develop in this simulation environment [ 11 ]. Tactile is the feeling produced when contacting external stimuli, which is different from LS and NLS; they require tactile stimulation to provide real-world experience, require upper or lower limbs to contact objects for object control, and perform actions such as throwing, slapping, and kicking.…”

“…Active video games (AVGs; also known as exergames) have been proposed as a good alternative for traditional exercise and have become an emerging tool for developing motor skills using the new technologies [ 11 ] and developing such skills among NTDC [ 12 – 15 ]. AVG is a kind of sports entertainment games with the help of human–computer interaction, motion sensing, virtual reality and other high-tech technologies [ 16 ], require players to physically interact with on-screen avatars through various physical activities such as dancing, jogging, and boxing [ 17 , 18 ].…”

Comparative Effectiveness of School-based Exercise Interventions on Physical Fitness in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

“…Nevertheless, after in-depth analysis of existing studies, we speculate that the enhancement of CVJ by AVGs may be related to locomotor skills rather than muscle strength. Since the exercise intensity of most commercial AVGs (e.g., Xbox Kinect, Wii, PlayStation) cannot reach the minimum threshold to stimulate growth in muscle strength 27 . Two reviews support our inference, revealing small but statistically signi cant effects of AVGs on youths' fundamental motor skills , .…”