Kinect Provides Health Benefits for Youngsters

Marshall Honorof

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Kinect Provides Health Benefits for Youngsters


Active videogames can increase heart rate and energy expenditure.

At first blush, a group of researchers appear to have just published a paper that chronicles one of the most obvious conclusions ever recorded in a scientific journal: Kids who play Kinect games burn more energy than their sedentary counterparts. This probably will not come as any great shock to anyone who's gotten off the couch for a motion-controlled game recently, but hear them out. A recent small-scale study indicates that children of both sexes can use active videogames to get their hearts pumping, consume more oxygen, and burn more calories as a result. Videogames can't replace regular exercise in children just yet, but even modest health benefits could provide a good starting point to combine an activity that kids love with a way to slow the obesity epidemic.

Stephen Smallwood and his team at the University of Chester enlisted ten boys and eight girls between the ages of 11 and 15 as research subjects. The results were consistent with what you might expect. The adolescents expended between 150 and 263% as much energy over resting values while playing Dance Central and Kinect Sports: Boxing. Compared to controller-based games, their activity increased by up to 200%, suggesting that while traditional games can indeed get your heart pounding, they're not quite as physically engaging as actually getting up and moving around.

Given the small sample size and the common-sense conclusions of the study, Smallwood and his team have probably been on the receiving end of more than a few eye-rolls since their paper appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. However, Smallwood's goal, for the time being, seems to be only to set down a scientific basis for videogames as an exercise tool. "Although it is unlikely that active video game play can single-handedly provide the recommended amount of physical activity ... to prevent or reverse the obesity epidemic," he says, "it appears from the results of this study that 'Kinect' active game play can contribute to children's physical activity levels and energy expenditure, at least in the short term." Could the future bring videogames to the forefront of children's fitness, or will traditional exercise have to suffice for the time being?

Source: HealthDay [http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=668888]

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Rainboq

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I'm just going to let the captcha speak for me 'whet your appetite'. Okay, Captcha, learn to spell. But the point is that I think stuff like Kinetic can lead to a love of physical activity, which will increase a childs want for such things.
 

MegaManOfNumbers

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"Kinect Provides Health Benefits for Youngsters"

And health dangers to anyone who has a living room that ISN'T a fucking gymnasium.
 

1337mokro

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Sadly it doesn't feature any games they would ever want to play nor does 90% of the human world posses a living room the size of a fucking sports hall.
 

Tippy

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That's right parents, buy a Kinect/Wii/Move for your little kid today!

Seriously, can they rub the fact that motion controls are aimed at children any harder in our faces?
 

gardian06

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Jun 18, 2012
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wait I can see it now: remember when your parents would use the phrase "go outside, and play", now that statement will be replaced with "go, and play the Kinnect to justify buying it". ok maybe not that last part, but didn't another research group do a somewhat similar study with the Wii (bare with me I know it was the Wii and all)
where the researchers were more interested in the concept of "playing active videogames leads to active play habits", and the study found that those children that received, and played the more active games were less likely to do other physical activity then those that received more traditional games.

so ok the children are more active while playing the games on the Kinnect I get more active to getting the system to understand my action, or frantically trying to stay in the box it thinks I should be in while playing a non "high activity" game.

I want to know if ever the offer was made "conduct this study for us, and we will give you these Xboxes, and Kinnects free. as well as the ones that you will be giving to the test subjects" at the very least it seems like more of an excuse for a few University students, and a Professor to write off the purchase of the gaming consoles, but only if they get the research published.
 

Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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games that actually are interesting does that without the person having to get sweaty. a good game where you care for what happens gets your heart rate and adrenaline pumping more than any excercise would.

also, moving while gaming is stupid, why would i want to come back from work and studies after a 12 hour day and then jump around? i want to just sit on my bed and make some tanks go boom, not jump around.
 

MetalMagpie

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The trouble with small-scale studies that support "common-sense" results is that they reinforce what people already think without actually providing any useful evidence of anything.

There was [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118095-Study-Concludes-Exercise-Games-Arent-Helping-Kids"]another small-scale study[/a] reported on the Escapist not long ago that found "active" games don't help kids be more active!
 

Me55enger

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Not buying Kinect provides health benefits to my account.

In other news: scientists prove that controllerless interaction formats reliant on movement will improve health after use.
 

Rainboq

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Res Plus said:
Rainboq said:
I'm just going to let the captcha speak for me 'whet your appetite'. Okay, Captcha, learn to spell. But the point is that I think stuff like Kinetic can lead to a love of physical activity, which will increase a childs want for such things.
On T - I would interested to see who funded the study. Kids, it would seem to me, are far better off having limited computer game time and some time playing a sport. Preferably with some decent parental interaction chucked in.

Off T- That is how you spell "whet" in relation to appetite, it's an old word for sharpen or to make keen, loads of people in fantasy novels use "whetstones". (Sorry if you were joking and I just didn't get it!)
I was joking :p I joke a lot. Its a bad habit.
 

Fasckira

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Oct 22, 2009
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Kind of obvious point... meh. I use the Kinnect quite often though, I find games like Kinnect Adventures and Just Dance to be a pretty good cardio fitness aid. Living room isn't too big but do occasionally end up on the couch when I overstep slightly during a particularly energetic moment.
 

Rainboq

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Nov 19, 2009
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Res Plus said:
Rainboq said:
Res Plus said:
Rainboq said:
I'm just going to let the captcha speak for me 'whet your appetite'. Okay, Captcha, learn to spell. But the point is that I think stuff like Kinetic can lead to a love of physical activity, which will increase a childs want for such things.
On T - I would interested to see who funded the study. Kids, it would seem to me, are far better off having limited computer game time and some time playing a sport. Preferably with some decent parental interaction chucked in.

Off T- That is how you spell "whet" in relation to appetite, it's an old word for sharpen or to make keen, loads of people in fantasy novels use "whetstones". (Sorry if you were joking and I just didn't get it!)
I was joking :p I joke a lot. Its a bad habit.
Lol, I think knowing the word "whet" is part of the Escapist entrance exam isn't it? :)
With a post count like this, I'd better :p
 

Rainboq

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2009
16,620
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Res Plus said:
Rainboq said:
Res Plus said:
Rainboq said:
Res Plus said:
Rainboq said:
I'm just going to let the captcha speak for me 'whet your appetite'. Okay, Captcha, learn to spell. But the point is that I think stuff like Kinetic can lead to a love of physical activity, which will increase a childs want for such things.
On T - I would interested to see who funded the study. Kids, it would seem to me, are far better off having limited computer game time and some time playing a sport. Preferably with some decent parental interaction chucked in.

Off T- That is how you spell "whet" in relation to appetite, it's an old word for sharpen or to make keen, loads of people in fantasy novels use "whetstones". (Sorry if you were joking and I just didn't get it!)
I was joking :p I joke a lot. Its a bad habit.
Lol, I think knowing the word "whet" is part of the Escapist entrance exam isn't it? :)
With a post count like this, I'd better :p
Now that.. that.. that is a post count. Dearie me, do you post in your sleep? :)
Nope, forum games :p