Examining Young Children's Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors in an Exergaming Program Using Accelerometry.

Zachary Pope,Zan Gao,Minghui Quan

doi:10.3390/jcm7100302

Abstract

Exergaming has been observed to be a viable supplemental approach in promoting physical activity (PA) among children. However, whether sex differences in PA and sedentary behaviors exist during exergaming is inconsistent. Thus, this study aimed to quantify, via accelerometry, young children’s PA and sedentary behaviors during exergaming as well as examine sex differences in these PA and sedentary behaviors during gameplay. In total, 121 first- and second-grade children (mean age = 6.89 ± 0.9 years; 73 girls) were included in the analysis. Children were a part of a large 18-week parent study. Children wore ActiGraph GT1M accelerometers during exergaming play, with four measurements purposively selected from the 28 total exergaming sessions to capture children’s PA and sedentary behaviors during exergaming play. Outcome variables included mean percentages of time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), light PA (LPA), and sedentary behavior during each exergaming session. One-way ANOVA was performed to determine whether there were differences in the percentage of time engaged in MVPA, LPA, and sedentary behavior during exergaming by sex. Accelerometry data indicated that children’s mean percentage of exergaming time spent in MVPA, LPA, and sedentary behavior were 19.9%, 32.9%, and 47.2%, respectively. However, no sex differences were present. Observations in this study indicated that boys and girls have similar PA levels during exergaming and suggests that features inherent to exergaming may assist in PA promotion among both sexes.

Highlights

Increased physical activity (PA) and reduced sedentary behavior among children and adolescents have been positively associated with improvements in physiological and cognitive outcomes, such as body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, bone health, cognition, and academic achievement [1]
No statistically significant sex differences were identified for moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), light PA (LPA), and sedentary behavior
Children of any gender spent more than 50% of their time in MVPA and LPA

Summary

Introduction

Increased physical activity (PA) and reduced sedentary behavior among children and adolescents have been positively associated with improvements in physiological and cognitive outcomes, such as body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, bone health, cognition, and academic achievement [1]. It is recommended that children and adolescents accumulate at least 60 minutes (min) of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) per day [2]. A recent study’s observations among 6128 children aged 9–11 years from 12 countries suggested that only 44.1% of participants met the MVPA recommendation [3]. Physical inactivity, along with dietary behaviors, has been highlighted as an important determinant of overweightness and obesity among children worldwide [4]. Evidence has suggested that physical inactivity and overweightness/obesity during childhood may track into later life [5,6], leading to higher risks of many chronic diseases including stroke, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease [7]. Researchers have been investigating effective and novel methods of promoting PA among children

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