PokéMon Go! Play May Promote Walking And Discourage Sedentary Behavior In College Students

Abstract

Pokémon Go! is a downloadable video game for use on an internet-connected cellular telephone (cell phone). The game encourages the player to traverse real-world locations (e.g., neighborhoods) and tracks the player, via GPS, as they move through these locales. The purpose of the game is to find computerized characters as the player moves through the real-world locations. Because the game requires players to move through real-world locales, it may promote physical activity. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess self-reported walking and sedentary behavior in young adults before and after downloading Pokémon Go!. METHODS: A sample of 238 (19.5 ± 1.7 years old, n = 119 females) college students who had downloaded Pokémon Go! on their cell phone for a minimum of two weeks were surveyed for weekly walking and sedentary behavior via the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Participants reported their walking and sedentary behavior at three time points: the week immediately preceding their download of Pokémon Go!, the first week after downloading the game and currently. Differences in self-reported physical activity and sedentary behavior across the three time points were compared via repeated-measures analyses of variance. RESULTS: There was a significant main effect of time (f ≥ 38.4, p ≤ 0.001) for walking and sedentary behavior. Participants reported greater (t ≥ 7.4, p ≤ 0.001) daily walking during the first week after downloading Pokémon Go! (206 ± 138 min) and currently (191 ± 202 min) versus the week before downloading (105 ± 101 min). There was no difference (t = 1.1, p = 0.27) between the first week after downloading and current walking behavior. Participants reported greater (t ≥ 6.5, p ≤ 0.001) daily sedentary behavior during the week before downloading (329 ± 219 min) versus both the first week after downloading (242 ± 181 min) and currently (256 ± 152 min). There was no difference (t = 1.5, p = 0.15) between the first week after downloading and current sitting behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Use of the popular, physically-interactive cell phone game, Pokémon go!, had favorable effects upon self-reported physical activity (96% to 82% increase) and sedentary behavior (26% to 22% decrease). Such games hold promise as technology that may promote physical activity and discourage sedentary activity.