Abstract
Esports, including virtual football, are a worldwide phenomenon. Yet, little is known about the physical activity levels of individuals engaged in virtual football game play. Therefore, we aimed to perform a preliminary evaluation of the levels of physical activity, sedentarism, and habits of physical training of adults engaged with virtual football in Portugal. This was a cross-sectional investigation based on a structured online survey using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and a set of questions regarding habits of physical training. The participants (n = 433) reported spending a median of 5,625 MET-min⋅week−1 being physically active. Still, the participants spent 320 min/day sitting, and 150 min/day practicing virtual football. According to the IPAQ scores, high physical activity levels were reported by 84.5% of the participants, and 87.1% were considered physically active considering the WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior. Overall, 60.0% of the participants reported planning their own physical training. Maintaining or improving overall physical health was one of the main reasons for doing physical training (66.7%), with only 6.1% responding being active to improve virtual football performance. Overall, the results showed that virtual football players accomplished the standard recommendations for physical activity, with high levels of physical activity, and encompassing regular physical training focused mostly on health promotion, rather than improved virtual football performance.
Highlights
IntroductionElectronic sports, comprises a group of different videogame genres (e.g., sports, firstperson shooter, etc.) played on a specific environment (i.e., in-site, on-line or both), mostly in national and international competitive tournaments (Karhulahti, 2017; Hallmann and Giel, 2018; Geoghegan and Wormald, 2019; Pereira et al, 2019)
Esports, or electronic sports, comprises a group of different videogame genres played on a specific environment, mostly in national and international competitive tournaments (Karhulahti, 2017; Hallmann and Giel, 2018; Geoghegan and Wormald, 2019; Pereira et al, 2019)
Participants who did not report all the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)-SF questions, nor did answer all applicable questions related to habits of physical training were excluded
Summary
Electronic sports, comprises a group of different videogame genres (e.g., sports, firstperson shooter, etc.) played on a specific environment (i.e., in-site, on-line or both), mostly in national and international competitive tournaments (Karhulahti, 2017; Hallmann and Giel, 2018; Geoghegan and Wormald, 2019; Pereira et al, 2019). Even though only a few esports players can reach the professional level (Nielsen and Karhulahti, 2017), in many countries, for some esports players their practice goes beyond just playing videogames as a hobby (DiFrancisco-Donoghue et al, 2019). Portuguese esports players are entering the realm of esports and their level grows; it is important to know more about screen time, inactivity and sedentary behavior due to esports, with no distinction between recreative or professional esports players. High levels of physical activity have been associated with a reduction in mortality and major comorbidities (Melzer et al, 2004; Lear et al, 2017; Piercy et al, 2018; World Health Organization, 2020)
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