Interactive video game bikes and their effect on exercise adherence and health related fitness among families

Project summary: Physical activity promotion initiatives focused on increasing activity within families have had very modest success. These initiatives often fail to promote the affective qualities (enjoyment, fun, pleasure) of physical activity. Dr Rhodes? research team will investigate whether interactive exercise video games can increase physical activity and health related fitness in comparison to traditional cycling or cycling while watching TV.Previous research: This research team has demonstrated that exercise games can improve physical activity participation and physical fitness through increasing the enjoyment of the exercise experience. This research team has several recent publications demonstrating these effects and represent the team with the most prior experience in evaluating exercise video games worldwide. This study extends prior research by putting the exercise bikes in the family home (rather than a lab), examining their effect compared to ordinary bicycling, and evaluating whether boys/girls, and mothers/fathers find these games equally interesting and effective for physical activity. Project description: The primary objective of this investigation is to evaluate the effect of 1) an interactive exercise video bike in comparison to 2) a stationary bike in front of a TV across six months within a family home environment of parents and their children. The variables under study are physical fitness, use of the various bikes, and perceptions of the bikes using two well validated models of human motivation. Other factors will also be examined including whether season (winter/summer), age (parents/kids) and gender (males/females) affect the use of the various bikes. Impact and relevance: Regular physical activity is linked to the prevention of most major cancers, yet over half of the Canadian populace is inactive. Family based promotion initiatives are very timely because parents and children represent low physical activity groups. Exercise video game interventions are not only innovative and contemporary but based on solid motivation theory; furthermore, society has been overwhelmed by Wii and other similar types of exercise games systems in recent years but the research evaluation of these gaming systems is low. This study represents the most valid and rigorous test of exercise games ever conducted for the populace.