Abstract
Background: The newest generation of active games are location specific, augmented-reality (AR) apps including Niantic Lab’s Ingress and Pokémon Go. Little is known about their effects on physical activity or the potential for social support and community awareness. Purpose: This study qualitatively explores physical activity, social interaction, and community awareness for players of a geolocation augmented-reality game. Methods: Twenty U.S. college students ages 18 to 21 learned the geo AR mobile game app, Ingress. Interviews about their experiences were recorded, transcribed and analyzed for themes using a phenomenological approach. Results: Frequent players were predominantly female and three of the seven were overweight or obese. Participants who already exercised felt the game did not increase their physical activity. Half of the participants mentioned adding a small amount of activity with a few being much more active. Only three reported any effect on their social health, but almost all mentioned increasing their community knowledge. Discussion: Geo AR games are promising to encourage activity for some who might otherwise be inactive. Translation to Public Health Practice: Mobile app games are a free, fun, and readily available tool for improving the health of college populations who may not be drawn to traditional programming.
Highlights
One in fiveAmericans reach the recommended amount of physical activity (PA) needed to decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, some cancers and depression [1]
All participants owned a cell phone with a data plan and downloaded the Ingress game app when directed at the beginning of the study
Healthy Campus 2020 seeks to increase the proportion of U.S students who are at a healthy weight (NWS-8) [11], defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5-24.9 kg/m2
Summary
One in fiveAmericans reach the recommended amount of physical activity (PA) needed to decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, some cancers and depression [1]. Healthy People 2020, which sets the public health objectives and related federal funding priorities for the US every ten years, lists several targets spe- cific to physical activity. Important factors that are positively associated with PA are enjoyment of the activity, pleasant/ interesting scenery and social support [2]. Recent development of mobile games using GPS, such as Ingress, the geolocation augmentedreality mobile (cell phone/tablet) game released by Google’s Niantic Labs, provide all three factors and other health enhancing benefits yet to be documented. The newest generation of active games are locationspecific, augmented-reality (AR) apps including Niantic Lab’s Ingress and Pokémon Go. Little is known about their effects on physical activity or the potential for social support and community awareness. Purpose: This study qualitatively explores physical activity, social interaction, and community awareness for players of a geolocation augmented-reality game
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