Turning exercise into a game can motivate you to stay active: Study

Washington: Researchers found that turning daily exercise into play is a good way to motivate people to get up and get more involved

The study was conducted at the University of Iowa. To this end, UI teachers and students have designed a web-based game that can be played by anyone with a smartphone and a Fitbit.

"We basically found that the people who were getting the game at the exit of the portal were increasing their pace of about 2200 a day, which is close to walking a mile.Statistically, it's important, clinically significant, "said Lucas Carr.

The game, called MapTrek, was designed by the Computational Epidemiology Research (CompEpi) Group, a collaborative group of students and faculty in the computer science, internal medicine and HHP departments of the UI Polgreen said. Research involves the development of new approaches to monitor diseases. Recently, this research has expanded to intervention design. MapTrek is an example of such an intervention.

"Our results suggest that setting goals alone was not enough," Polgreen said. "So we decided to design a game with challenges and make the game social: the result is MapTrek."

How MapTrek works: Users synchronize accelerometer data – in the case of this study, Fitbits – with the web-based MapTrek game. Using Google Maps, MapTrek then moves a virtual avatar along a map in proportion to the number of steps that the participant takes. The participants in the study were grouped together and faced each other weekly in weekly walking challenges.

"You can see where you are and see where you are on this map," Carr said. "Every week the race changes to a different place in the world – the Appalachian Trail, the Grand Canyon."

Using Google's Street View feature, users can click and see where they are in real time. play in a virtual walk or race through different places.

MapTrek also sends users text messages every day to remind them to wear their Fitbit and also to provide encouragement. Users could also participate in daily challenges to win bonus stages.

For the study, 146 participants – sedentary office workers, aged 21 to 65 who reported sitting at least 75 percent of their working day – were divided into two groups. Both were given Fitbits, but only one group used their Fitbit with the MapTrek game. Their activity levels were monitored with the Fitbit Activity Monitor.

During the 10-week study, the researchers found that the Fitbit group and MapTrek were doing 2,092 more steps a day and 11 more minutes per day group. Active minutes are defined as those in which the participant took more than 100 steps.

"If a person can maintain a daily increase of 2,000 steps, this could lead to a clinically significant improvement in their overall health," Carr said. "It is badociated with a relative reduction of about 10 percent in the long-term incidence of cardiovascular disease."

Finally, the Fitbit and MapTrek group did not maintain the peak of overall activity during the 10-week study. Although the Fitbit and MapTrek users regressed, they did on average more steps than the Fitbit group only at the end of the study. In the end, the MapTrek group regained its fitness level before the study, Carr said.

"In 10 weeks, gains in activity declined and both groups appeared similar at the end of the study." "But, we are encouraged by the big initial increase in daily steps and are now looking to improve the game in order to bring about longer behavioral changes."

"The value of this type of approach is almost any who can play it with minimal risk," said Carr. "Almost everyone can benefit from an increase in levels. of activity. "

The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.