Abstract
Introduction Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is a major concern in public health. Our objective is to study through a meta-analysis of primary studies, the impact of active video games on body mass index (BMI) in children and adolescents. Methods A comprehensive literature research was conducted due clinical trials (both controlled and uncontrolled) in children and adolescents, written in English or Spanish, whose intervention was based on active video games. Different bases of international bibliographic databases were consulted: Medline through PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and SCOPUS. A manual search was also conducted in the references of retrieved studies as well as meta-analyzes and systematic reviews found that addressed active video games. All relevant primary studies (published or about to be published) were identified. Data were pooled in meta-analysis using the method of random effects or fixed effects, as convenient, after examination of statistical heterogeneity using the Cochran Q test and heterogeneity, and t2, t e I2 statistics. The origin of heterogeneity and publication bias was also investigated. Results The individual results of the determinations of the 12 included studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria, showed a high heterogeneity among them (Q = 102.71, df = 15, P Conclusions Our meta-analysis shows a statistically significant effect in favor of using active video games on BMI in children and adolescents. Given the novelty of active video games, and that the analyzed studies have evaluated short-term interventions, it is necessary to conduct long-term studies with larger sample size, in order to reach valid and reliable comparisons. The clinical relevance of the positive effect must be also evaluated.
Highlights
Overweight and obesity are currently a serious public health problem
A comprehensive literature research was conducted in relation to clinical trials in children and adolescents, written in English or Spanish, whose intervention was based on active video games
When the intervention was applied to children and adolescents with a basal body mass index (BMI) percentile more than or equal to 85, a greater intra-group effect was showed in favor of the intervention with a standardized mean of difference (SMD)= −0.483, 95%CI (−0.862 to −0.105) p = 0.012 under the random effects model
Summary
Overweight and obesity are currently a serious public health problem. Its increasing prevalence affects children and adolescents, with diet and physical activity being the most important modifiable factors for its prevention [1,2]. Individual primary studies and subsequent meta-analyses have focused on the effects of active video games on the promotion of physical activity [3,4,5,6,7,8], energy expenditure [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26], oxygen volume consumption [9,12,15,16,27,28,29], and heart rate [9,14,15,17,18,27,28,29,30,31,32]. A meta-analysis synthesizing the quantitative findings in relation to BMI, and incorporating a subgroup analysis based on the quality of the identified studies and other methodological characteristics would be very useful
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