Many video games require nothing more than alertness and fast fingers; neither activity burns many calories or increases one's energy level. There are, however, a set of active video games that really require the user to move. This is great news for physically inactive children, but do they really work to burn calories? Researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) were determined to find out. 

 

The researchers recruited 104 kids in grades 3 through 8 from a public school in the District of Columbia. The researchers wanted to see how traditional Physical Education (P.E.) activities would stack up against Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and another active video game called Winds of Orbis: An Active Adventure (Orbis).

 

The kids in the study reported to their regularly scheduled physical education classes but were randomly assigned to three, 20-minute sessions of DDR, Orbis or their usual gym class. Kids playing DDR dance along to electronic music in ever-increasing and complicated patterns. Those using Orbis play the role of a virtual superhero that climbs, jumps, slides and has other sorts of active adventures. The testing was supervised by a researcher who measured each child's energy expenditure during the study sessions.

 

Not surprisingly, the researchers discovered that, on average, kids expended more energy when they participated in the P.E. activities. What was interesting was that for children in grades 3 through 5 the active video games moved enough to meet the government recommendations for "vigorous activity." The researchers feel this is especially important for children who live in areas where public park/playground access is limited.

 

Bottom Line: Childhood obesity, which now affects an estimated 17 percent of all U.S. children and teenagers, is a serious problem. Moving more, even using video games, helps and can set children up for a healthier lifetime of movement.

 

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