Effects of Active Videogame and Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids Physical Education on Children's Health-Related Fitness and Enjoyment

Objective: The purpose of the study was to compare the effects of a Kinect active videogame (AVG) and the Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK) intervention in improving children's health-related fitness and physical activity (PA) enjoyment.

Materials and methods: A total of 65 students from both third and fourth grade in a rural elementary school participated in the study. The third graders (N = 29, mean age = 9.1 years, 10 boys, mean body mass index [BMI] = 20.1) were assigned to a SPARK physical education group, while the fourth graders (N = 36, mean age = 10.2 years, 15 boys, mean BMI = 20.3) were enrolled in the Kinect AVG group. The intervention lasted for 6 weeks, with each week including three practice sessions (∼40 minutes per session). All participants were measured on their health-related fitness by testing their performance in the 15-m Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER), curl-ups, and push-ups both before and after the interventions. Participants' PA enjoyment was measured immediately after the first and last session's practice. Various ANCOVA tests were conducted to analyze the intervention effects on the changes of health-related fitness performances and enjoyment while controlling for baseline values, gender, and BMI. Various MANOVA tests were used to examine the intervention effects on PA levels during three practice sessions.

Results: Participants in AVG group had greater improvement in 15-m PACER test (P < 0.001), as well as PA enjoyment (P < 0.05), than those in SPARK group. The AVG group generated higher light PA and lower sedentary time for three (P < 0.05 to P < 0.001) and two sessions (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001), respectively. In addition, the AVG group accumulated higher moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for the first session (P < 0.01), while the SPARK group generated higher MVPA for the third session (P < 0.001). No MVPA difference was found between groups for another session.

Conclusion: A 6-week (40 minutes × 3 times/week) program using AVG could be an effective strategy in improving children's cardiorespiratory fitness while maintaining PA enjoyment.