Games and texts help kids fight fat

 

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Posted on 12 Nov 2008 at 13:03

Video games and text messages could prove to be valuable tools in getting children into shape. Parents are buying their children copies of Nintendo Wii Fit to help their children lose weight this Christmas and new research suggests that children who use text messages to report weight-loss progress are more likely to shed the pounds than those who use traditional methods.

According to the Department of Health, a third of 11-year-olds and 12-year-olds are overweight, and without action, nine out of ten of today's children will be overweight and at risk from serious disease by 2050.

In response to the shocking stats, UK parents are buying Nintendo Wii Fit for their children this Christmas to help their kids trim down. According to research from auction site Swoopo, parents are buying Christmas presents for their kids much earlier this year and the product most in demand has been Nintendo's fitness-oriented game - currently selling almost twice as many copies as any other product.

The company polled 1,253 people, and found that two thirds of British mums are worried about their children's weight and fitness, as are over 50 per cent of dads. 34 per cent said they 'actively try to encourage' their child to exercise for health and fitness reasons. 86 per cent reckon that videogames encouraging their children to exercise are beneficial.

"With Christmas looming and obesity so prevalent in society, it makes perfect sense for parents to be influencing their children to exercise in as fun and involving way as possible," said Nigel Whiteoak, country manager of Swoopo.co.uk.

"The popularity of Wii Fit and the Wii console in general never ceases to amaze us, but sales have increased much more noticeably in the past month and our research sheds light on the potential reason behind it. Kids across the UK look set to be gaming their way to fitness this Christmas thanks to their mums."

'Texting' the fat away

Meanwhile, research in the US has shown that self monitoring weight-loss progress using text messages is more effective in helping kids fight obesity than any other method of self monitoring.

According to Dr Jennifer R. Shapiro of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, the recording of calorie intake, exercise and body weight on a regular basis is extremely important for the long-term success of weight loss and weight control.

Traditionally, paper diaries are most often used for self-monitoring, encouraging people to write down how many calories they consume, how many calories they burn in exercise and how much they weigh. However, Shapiro reckons that kids today communicating via text messages a more effective way to self monitor.

"Cell phone text messaging is something that's very familiar to most children now, since they've grown up with it," Shapiro said. "By using this technology, we were hoping to make self-monitoring seem more like fun to them and less like work."

She trialled an approach whereby children send text messages every day communicating how much they exercised and ate, and receive automated responses either congratulating them or telling them how to improve.

She found that children using text messaging had a lower attrition rate (28 per cent) from the study than children using a paper diary (61 per cent) and those who didn't self monitor (50 per cent). They also had a significantly greater adherence to self-monitoring (43 percent) than those using written diaries (19 per cent).

Author: Dawinderpal Sahota