Movement and hardware content selection for exergame development

Abstract

Introduction: A trend of spending leisure time in front of various screens is widespread among children and adolescents. Prolonged sitting, low level of local muscular endurance, and playing video games are some of the risk factors for low back pain among children and adolescents. In order to motivate children to be regularly active, exercise video games (exergames) have appeared on the market. The aim of this paper is to review the literature on movement content to increase spine stability and hardware options for effective motion tracking. In order to determine the game content more accurately, the second aim was to evaluate the correlation between maximum trunk strength (in the lateral and frontal planes) and the performance of the lumbar stability test. Methods: We focused on Pubmed database, where we searched for articles published since 2010. The correlation study included 9 subjects (age 20,4 ± 6,1, height 178,8 ± 6,1 cm, weight 70,8 ± 13,5 kg) who were physically active 3 times per week. We used Spearman coefficient for correlation analysis. Results: 40 articles were included in the analysis. Maximal trunk strength in sagittal and frontal planes did not significantly correlate with total CoP area (r < 0,10), p > 0,79). In general, researchers agreed that a successful preventive-curative approach to manage low back pain consists of several phases. In reviewing the hardware, the researchers stressed the importance of motion tracking with marker-less sensors, as their validity in performing simple movements is comparable to the gold standard.