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Stationary cycling exergame use among inactive children in the family home: a randomized trial

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Abstract

Exergames may be one way to increase child physical activity, but long term adherence has seen little research attention. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the usage of an exergame bike in comparison to a stationary bike in front of a TV across 3-months within a family home environment among children aged 10–14 years old. Seventy-three inactive children were recruited through advertisements and randomized to either the exergame condition (n = 39) or the standard bike condition (n = 34). Weekly bike use was recorded in a log-book. Both groups declined in bike use over time (t = 3.921, p < .01). Although the exergame group reported higher use (t = 2.0045, p < .05), this was most prominent during the first week. Overall, these results do not support exergames as a standalone physical activity intervention, and suggest that short duration examinations of exergames may be misleading.

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Acknowledgments

RER is supported by an investigator award through the Canadian Cancer Society and Right to Give Foundation. The trial was funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute. We acknowledge Cara Temmel and Kristina Kowalski for the hard work of trial coordination and data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioural Medicine Laboratory, School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education, University of Victoria, PO Box 3010, STN CSC, Victoria, B.C., V8W 3N4, Canada

    Ryan E. Rhodes

  2. Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

    Chris M. Blanchard

  3. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Shannon S. D. Bredin, Mark R. Beauchamp & Darren E. R. Warburton

  4. Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Ralph Maddison

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  1. Ryan E. Rhodes
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  6. Darren E. R. Warburton
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Correspondence to Ryan E. Rhodes.

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Conflicts of interest

Authors Ryan E. Rhodes, Chris M. Blanchard, Shannon S. D. Bredin, Mark R. Beauchamp, Ralph Maddison, and Darren E.R. Warburton declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study received ethical approval from the University of Victoria Human Research Ethics Board.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

Human and animal rights and Informed Consent. All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Rhodes, R.E., Blanchard, C.M., Bredin, S.S.D. et al. Stationary cycling exergame use among inactive children in the family home: a randomized trial. J Behav Med 40, 978–988 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-017-9866-7

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