Active Video Games for Improving Mental Health and Physical Fitness-An Alternative for Children and Adolescents during Social Isolation: An Overview.

Isis Kelly Dos Santos,Rafaela Catherine Da Silva Cunha De Medeiros Medeiros,Jason Azevedo De Medeiros,Paulo Moreira Silva Dantas,Ricardo Ney Cobucci,Paulo Francisco De Almeida-Neto,Dianne Cristina Souza De Sena,Ricardo Santos Oliveira,Breno Guilherme De Araújo Tinoco Cabral

doi:10.3390/ijerph18041641

Abstract

The aim of this study was to synthesize the evidence on the effects of active video games (AVGs) on mental health, physical fitness and body composition of children and adolescents. A search was conducted in the following databases: PubMed; MEDLINE (by Ovid); SportDiscus, Cochrane library systematic reviews (CENTRAL) and EMBASE with no language restrictions during October 2020. Reviews on the use of AVGs were included in the study. We use the AMSTAR (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews) scale to analyze the methodological quality of the studies. Seventeen systematic reviews and meta-analyzes were included on the effects of AVGs with 30 to 4728 children and adolescents of both sexes with ages ranging from 6 to 19 years. In five studies, the population was overweight or obese. Regarding the quality, 12 studies were of moderate quality, two had high quality, two had low quality and one showed very low quality. The analyzed data indicate that the use of AVGs with a frequency of 1 to 3 times a week with durations of between 10 and 90 min per day shows positive effects on mental health and physical functioning. There was moderate quality evidence that AVGs can result in benefits for self-esteem, increased energy expenditure, physical activity and reduced body mass index in children and adolescents who used AVGs in the home environment. Further research is needed on this tool to help in the process of social isolation and consequently in promoting health and well-being.

Highlights

The emergence and rapid spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a disease that promotes severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2), motivated the World Health Organization (2020) to determine a state of emergency worldwide, characterizing it as a pandemic [1,2,3]
We investigated the effect of active video games (AVGs) on the mental health and physical fitness of children and adolescents
It was observed that AVGs do not reach vigorous intensity, the findings suggest that AVGs can be recognized as tools or alternatives for reducing sedentary behavior, adding to physical activity

Summary

Introduction

The emergence and rapid spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a disease that promotes severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2), motivated the World Health Organization (2020) to determine a state of emergency worldwide, characterizing it as a pandemic [1,2,3]. Organization and the Scientific and Cultural Organization suggested closing schools and universities in 190 countries worldwide [4]. In view of this scenario, schools and universities were forced to suspend classes indefinitely, causing children and adolescents to spend most of the time at home, or with very restricted coexistence [5,6]. These restrictions became a challenge for everyone due.

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