Active video games don't mean kids exercise more

All that virtual boxing, bowling and dancing along with video game systems might not be helping kids meet their daily exercise requirements, a new study suggests.

In the report, kids who were given so-called active video games to play on a Nintendo Wii didn't end up logging any more moderate or vigorous physical activity than those given games they could play sitting on the couch.

Researchers said that it's still possible playing active Wii games instead of other video games or simply watching TV could mean youngsters burn a few extra calories.

But, "is the Wii going to really contribute to getting those sixty minutes of physical activity (a day)? I don't think it will," said Jacob Barkley, an exercise scientist from Kent State University in Ohio who didn't participate in the new research.

Some public health researchers have hoped that active video games might be an alternative to outdoor play and sports for at least some of the physical activity kids need - especially for those who live in unsafe neighborhoods where playing outside isn't always an option.

To try to see if that's the case, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, designed every kid's dream study: they passed out Wii consoles to 78 kids who didn't already have one, and gave half the kids their choice of active game - such as Wii Sports or Dance Dance Revolution-Hottest Party 3 - and the other half their choice of inactive game, such as Disney Sing-It Pop Hits or Super Mario Galaxy.

WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Active video games can enable children under laboratory conditions to participate in moderate, and even vigorous, physical activity. There are inconsistencies in the literature, however, about whether active video games enable children to increase physical activity under more naturalistic circumstances.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: This study tests whether children receiving a new active video game spontaneously engaged in more physical activity, and whether commercially available active video games have a public health benefit. No additional physical activity was detected, suggesting no public health benefit.

Halfway through the study, the kids, all nine to 12 years old and above average weight, got their choice of a second game from the same category as their first.

Tom Baranowski and his colleagues tracked the youngsters for 13 weeks, testing their physical activity levels with a motion-measuring device called an accelerometer.

Participants wore the devices on a belt during four different week-long periods throughout the study, which allowed the research team to determine when they were sedentary or lightly exercising and when they were engaged in moderate-to-vigorous exercise. Kids were generally good at complying with those instructions because if they did, they got to keep the Wii after the study was over.