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SALT LAKE CITY — If you think your kids are getting enough exercise through certain games, think again.
Wii and Kinect sports look like ways to get exercise, but researchers used accelerometers to measure activity levels of 80 kids over 12 weeks and found no difference between those given exercise-based video games and those given sedentary games.
The lead researcher, Dr. Tom Baranowski at Baylor College of Medicine, said it seems the kids put in minimal effort.
"There are ways of playing these games (by) moving fingers, moving wrists, moving arms, but not really getting the body moving," he said.
Baranowski said another hypothesis they have for the results is that perhaps the kids were active at school or in another activity during the day, and compensated by being less active during the game-playing.
Simply giving the child an active game doesn't do it.
–Tom Baranowski
He said this should make parents think twice about these video game systems.
"A physical activity game can be part of an overall program of increased physical activity, but simply giving the child an active game doesn't do it."
A doctor's prescription to play an active game has better results, as does when parents play those active games alongside their children, according to Baranowski.
"Many children say, "Gee, I'd love my parents to be active with me," he said. "Rather than sending the child off to be physically active by themselves, is it possible for the parents to play with them."
