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February 27th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) — Apparently there’s no
guarantee that your kids will mend their couch-potato ways if you give
them a fitness video game.
A new study found no differences in physical activity over a
three-month period between a group of children given “active” video games
that simulated boxing and dancing, for example, and a group given
“non-active” video games.
Fitness video games had been tested in laboratory settings, according
to the study published online Feb. 27 in the journal Pediatrics,
but it was unclear whether games ramped up physical activity at home,
where kids can make their own choices about how much and how intensely
they want to play.
“We were interested in seeing what the effect of getting a new video
game had on the physical activity of children in the home setting, under
naturalistic circumstances,” said study author Dr. Tom Baranowski, a
professor of pediatrics in the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
The scientists followed 78 children between the ages of 9 and 12, and
gave each a new Wii video game console. None had owned one before. Half
were invited to choose from a selection of five active fitness-focused
games such as Wii Fit Plus, while the other half chose from inactive
games, including Mario Kart Wii. The youngsters received needed
accessories including balance boards, remote controllers and resistance
bands.
Baranowski said letting the children chose their own games was
important, and they were given an opportunity to select one at the start
and then another new one after six weeks. “We wanted to be sure they were
getting something they wanted and we weren’t foisting one on them,” he
said.
To measure physical activity, each participant wore an accelerometer,
an electronic device attached to a belt at the waist that tracks movement.
The belt could be taken off only when swimming or bathing, and the
children kept a journal of when they removed it. The authors said
compliance was high because the youngsters wanted to keep their Wii
consoles.
Baranowski said they expected that starting at week one there would be
a substantial increase in physical activity in the group that played the
active games, but not in the inactive game group. They expected another
surge after the children chose their second new game midway through the
study. No increase in physical activity occurred, though.
“By week six, we thought physical activity would taper off, and that in
the seventh week, when they got to chose a new, second video game, that
there might be an increase in activity. We expected the active video games
would have a modest gain across these periods. But we found there was no
difference in the level of the activity between the treatment and control
groups. What we detected at baseline, before playing active video games,
was exactly the same in weeks one, six, seven and 12,” Baranowski
said.
The authors theorize that the children either didn’t chose to play
their active games at the same intensity level that occurred in the
previous lab studies, or perhaps the children compensated by being less
active at other times during the day.
An outside expert said the study was interesting.
“You’d think that the kids who are playing these games would be burning
more calories, but I think the nature of the games is not the same as
going out and interacting. It doesn’t directly encourage kids to go out
and exercise,” said Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry and
biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the
University of California, Los Angeles. He has studied and written about
the impact of technology on children and adults.
“Wii Fit is not made to get kids to exercise, it’s to sell games. Maybe
they need to design the games differently, to really get kids to move
more,” Small said.
Children’s Hospital Colorado pediatrician Dr. Christina Suh, who has
conducted research on physical activity in overweight and obese children,
said it’s not encouraging news in terms of using the fitness video games
as a tool for tackling the increasing problem of childhood obesity.
“The take-home message is that on a population basis, it looks like
using active video games is not an effective way of getting kids to be
more active. In other words, if someone thinks of passing out Wii fitness
consoles to kids in a public school district, for example, it probably
wouldn’t be effective in terms of its impact on public health,” Suh
said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children get at least one
hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day, like jump-roping,
riding a bike and playing tag, she noted.
“As a pediatrician, when you’re prescribing physical activity for a kid
to prevent them from becoming overweight, or as a treatment program for
obesity, you have to really make that prescription individualized. The key
is figuring out what’s really fun for that child,” Suh said.
She said it’s somewhat counterintuitive to recommend children get their
daily physical activity from video games.
“It muddles the message pediatricians give to get outside. My feeling
is if you’re going to be physically active, it makes more sense to play
tennis with a family member outdoors than on a video game inside. A tennis
racquet and some balls would much cheaper than a video game console, too,”
Suh said.
More information
Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to see how much physical activity children need.
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