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