Measuring physical inactivity: Do current measures provide an accurate view of "sedentary" video game time?

Fullerton, Simon, Taylor, Anne W., Dal Grande, Eleonora and Berry, Narelle (2014) Measuring physical inactivity: Do current measures provide an accurate view of "sedentary" video game time? Journal of Obesity, 2014. ISSN 2090-0708

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Measures of screen time are often used to assess sedentary behaviour. Participation in activity-based video games (exergames) can contribute to estimates of screen time, as current practices of measuring it do not consider the growing evidence that playing exergames can provide light to moderate levels of physical activity. This study aimed to determine what proportion of time spent playing video games was actually spent playing exergames. METHODS: Data were collected via a cross-sectional telephone survey in South Australia. Participants aged 18 years and above (n = 2026) were asked about their video game habits, as well as demographic and socioeconomic factors. In cases where children were in the household, the video game habits of a randomly selected child were also questioned. RESULTS: Overall, 31.3% of adults and 79.9% of children spend at least some time playing video games. Of these, 24.1% of adults and 42.1% of children play exergames, with these types of games accounting for a third of all time that adults spend playing video games and nearly 20% of children's video game time. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of time that would usually be classified as "sedentary" may actually be spent participating in light to moderate physical activity.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright © 2014 Simon Fullerton et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	adolescent,adult,aged,cross-sectional studies,data collection,exercise,humans,sedentary lifestyle,south australia,video games,young adult
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Nutrition and Preventive Medicine
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	21 Jun 2016 12:08
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 01:17
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/59440
DOI:	10.1155/2014/287013

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