Estimating Energy Expenditure in Active Video Gaming Compared to Unstructured, Outdoor Play in Children

The increasing use of sedentary screen-based activities (SBAs) has been most recently blamed for children and adolescents' lack of engagement in physical activity (PA). Studies indicate a large portion of children participate high-levels of sedentary SBAs and the sedentary SBAs appear to compete for time to engage in PA. If sedentary behavior is a substitute for PA, to help increase PA, strategies need to be put into place that helps to decrease sedentary behaviors. One modification to sedentary videogames that may increase PA in children is to alter sedentary videogames so that the videogames actually provide an option to engage in PA, rather than to be sedentary. These types of games then don't compete with PA, but actually are a source of PA. These types of videogames are called active video games (AVG) or "Exer-gaming." Previous research demonstrates that energy-expenditure (EE) in AVG play is comparable to moderate-intensity walking and produce greater EE than sedentary SBAs. However, previous studies have been limited to measuring EE in AVG play to walking either on a treadmill or in a structured setting. Studies have not investigated the EE of AVG play compared to the EE in free-living outdoor play. Thus, the purpose of the proposed study is to determine whether a greater EE is released during AVG play compared to free-living, outdoor play in children.