Original research
Use of in-home stationary cycling equipment among parents in a family-based randomized trial intervention

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Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of home exercise equipment in the form of exergame cycling compared to a stationary recumbent bicycle ergometer in front of TV in the home over 3 months among parents of an intervention with their inactive children. The primary outcome was bike use (total weekly duration). Predictors of bike use in the form of theory of planned behavior and self-determination theory were also examined.

Method

Sixty eight parents of children aged 10–14 were randomized to either the exergame condition (n = 36) or the standard bike condition (n = 32). Weekly bike use was recorded in a log-book.

Results

The exergame bike and a standard bike in front of a TV had similar use across three months (p = .13, ηp2 = .02), which declined over time (p < .01, ηp2 = .14). Parents who were active at baseline and had the intention to use the bikes were more likely to use the bikes (p < .05). Furthermore, those who reported higher perceived control, intrinsic motivation, and affective attitude were more likely to use the bikes (p < .05).

Conclusions

The findings suggested that irrespective of modality, use of exercise equipment declined considerably for parents over three-months. Parents may also benefit from family physical activity interventions, but it depends on their physical activity status, how much they would enjoy using the equipment, and their overall perceived control over being physically active.

Trial registration

clinicaltrials.gov #NCT01373762. Registered 1 June 2011.

Introduction

The health benefits of regular physical activity (PA) are well-established,1 yet many adults fail to meet the 150 weekly minutes of moderate or greater intensity recommended in public health guidelines.2 One group that is particularly at risk for physical inactivity is parents with dependent children in the family home,3 yet applications of home-based interventions are limited.4

One area of home-based PA that has seen recent attention is exergames.5 Exergames are games where players interact physically (using leg, arm, or whole-body movement) in response to some on-screen virtual activity. These games have extensive reach into the family home. For example, the Wii has sold over 101.63 million units since its introduction and has contributed to a 73% increase in net Nintendo sales.6 Most of the focus of exergaming research has been on children,7 but it is also possible that parents themselves could derive PA from game play. Adult exergame trials have had very limited research and with mixed results.8, 9, 10 Thus, it is unclear whether there is any spill-over of game use by parents when the intended audience was their children.

Relatedly, the introduction of fitness equipment into the family home may be useful to facilitate PA. The Sport and Fitness Industry Association reports that exercise equipment sales is a $5+ billion business, with home fitness equipment exceeding 35% of that revenue.11 Thus, whether home equipment can help promote PA is a practical research question for consumers, but this has received almost no research attention.12

Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the use of exergame cycling compared to a stationary recumbent bicycle ergometer in front of the TV in the home over 3 months among parents. A secondary aim was to examine predictors of bike use. A prior publication of this randomized controlled trial focused on children aged 10–14,13 and showed the exergame group reported higher use, though both conditions declined in bike use over time. Here we explore parental use of the bikes, as parents were also invited to use the bikes during the trial. We hypothesized that the exergame condition may show higher use due to the interactive play capabilities of the equipment, but both conditions would decline over time.

We also sought to explore the predictors of equipment use in both conditions. We first sought to explore whether parental sex and PA status could explain differences in bike use. Next, we used self-determination theory (SDT)14 and the theory of planned behavior (TPB)15 to predict bike use and explore whether these psychological models could explain any covariance between condition (standard bike, exergame) and use. Both models have shown predictive capability when explaining PA.16, 17 Based on this prior research, we expected that bike users would be more intrinsically motivated (SDT) and have stronger intentions (TPB) than non-users.

Section snippets

Methods

We followed the consolidated standards of reporting trials statement for this study.18 A two-arm parallel design single blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted where participants were randomized using simple computer randomization procedures and allocated to one of two groups (1) exergame bike; or (2) stationary bike in front of TV- condition for three months duration at a 1:1 allocation ratio. Participants were aware of their group allocation, but assessors and initial recruiters

Results

Study flow is provided in Supplementary Fig. 1. The 68 parents who met the study inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (32 standard bike and 36 exergame bike) and rolling recruitment began in May 2012 and continued until December 2013. There were no study drop-outs. All parents cited time conflicts for their reasons for declining to participate. No participants cited harms associated with the study.

Baseline characteristics of the participants can be found in

Discussion

Our hypothesis that the exergame condition would show higher use than the standard bike condition was not supported and suggests that entertainment-based exergames may not be a successful mechanism to encourage adult PA any more than standard exercise equipment. Interestingly, our results did show that adults had more favorable attitudes toward using the exergame over the standard bike after initial exposure, and reported the exergame as considerably more enjoyable and less boring to use than

Conclusions

Our results showed that an exergame bike and a standard bike in front of a TV had similar use in the family home among a sample of parents, and both groups declined across three months. Parents who were active at baseline and had the intention/intrinsic motivation to use the bikes were more likely to use the bikes.

Practical implications

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    Entertainment-based exergames may not be a successful mechanism to encourage adult physical activity any more than standard exercise equipment.

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    Home exercise equipment use decreased rapidly over three months suggesting that mere accessibility is not sufficient to sustain continued use.

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    Active parents at baseline were more likely to use the exercise equipment than inactive parents suggesting that home exercise equipment may be more useful for physical activity maintenance compared to adoption.

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Funding

The trial was funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the University of Victoria Human Research Ethics Board and informed consent was provided from all participants.

Acknowledgements

We thank Cara Temmel and Kristina Kowalski for trial coordination and data-entry of the study. The trial was funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute.

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