OKLAHOMA CITY — Kids everywhere now have a new talking point when asking, begging or pleading parents for a Nintendo Wii.
The Wii system is good for them, according to a new study from researchers at the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center at the OU Health Sciences Center.
The study, which appears this week in “Pediatrics,” a journal issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, examined the number of calories burned by 23 children aged 10-13 as they played Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Boxing and Wii Bowling. The researchers then compared those rates to the energy output of walking at 3.5 mph on a treadmill, and watching TV.
Wii Boxing and level two of Dance Dance Revolution produced levels of caloric output 2-3 times that expended while watching television, similar to the calorie-burning rate of a treadmill. Wii Bowling and the easiest level of Dance Dance Revolution produced an energy output rate that doubled the energy expenditure of watching television.
“We’re not saying that this is equivalent to being on the soccer team, or the basketball team or going for a run outside, but it’s a good way to increase your energy expenditure during those times when you’d otherwise be sedentary, [such as] a rainy day or when they’re playing video games anyway.” said Kevin Short, the principal investigator during the study and an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the OU College of Medicine.
Short said the current recommendation is for children to get at least 60 minutes of moderate-level or greater activity in a day, and that the video games tested would help reach that total.
“The national surveys that have been done show that young kids are usually pretty good about meeting that goal,” he said. “But sometime during adolescence, in those teenage years, that level drops down and less than half of kids are meeting that goal, in the United States currently.”
The games can also provide some improvement in children that are already obese, Short said.
“Only about 30 years ago, 5 percent of our children were obese in the United States,” said Dr. Kenneth Copeland, co-director of Pediatrics at the Hamm Center and the section chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at the OU College of Medicine. “And now, one third of our children are either overweight or obese, and Oklahoma is certainly one of the leading states in that dubious distinction.”
Childhood obesity’s link to diabetes in adults is becoming stronger, according to Copeland. “This is prevention at its very best,” he said. “First of all, defining how much of an intervention do you have to [do to] prevent obesity, how much of an intervention like the Wii games, the video games, do you have to make to really make a difference on energy expenditure, caloric expenditure.”
Children were excited to participate in the study, according to Lauren Pratt, a co-investigator on the study.
Advertisements that promoted the video games as ways to exercise, along with a previous Health Sciences Center study which used Dance Dance Revolution as an exercise stimulus in schools, provided the genesis for the study.
“So many companies are promoting these active video games, like Dance Dance Revolution and the Nintendo Wii, that we [asked], ‘How many calories are kids expending when they play these games, or
adults for that matter?’” Short said. “And how does this compare to other forms of exercise that we regularly promote.”
Future studies, including one that is currently underway, will determine if these results are consistent across age groups, including adults, and how exercise affects the blood sugar levels in children and
adults.
Anyone interested in participating in the studies should contact Lauren Pratt at lauren-pratt@ouhsc.edu.
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Bubba 2 years, 10 months ago
I'm holding out for "WII Exorcist". It probably wouldn't be suitable for kids, but it would be a good workout!
-Bubba