Background/Purpose: Interactive dance games have been recommended as an innovative and fun solution to fight childhood obesity (Zhu, 2008). To our best knowledge, few studies have examined physical activity (PA) levels in interactive dance among overweight and obese children as compared to normal weight children. This study was designed to investigate fourth graders' PA Levels in Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) across different weight status.
Methods: Participants were 82 fourth grade children (47 girls; 55 Latino; Mage=10.32) from two elementary schools who had exposure to DDR for at least one semester.
Participants' height and weight were measured in individualized settings, followed by the measurement of their PA levels (via NL-1000 piezoelectric pedometer) for three DDR sessions. Participants were classified into normal weight, overweight, and obese groups based on the CDC BMI-for-age growth charts for girls and boys (Kuezmarski et al., 2000). The outcome variables of PA were steps per minute (SPM) and estimated time in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA).
Analysis/Results: Over 51.2% of children fell into the overweight (n=14) and obese (n=28) groups; and their PA levels (SPMoverweight=54.78; MVPAoverweight =2.86; SPMobese=52.41; MVPAobese =2.41) were lower than those of the normal weight children (SPM=59.42; MVPA =3.32). One-way MANOVA failed to yield a significant main group effect (Wilks' lambda =.96, F(4, 156)=.71, p>.05, η2=.02).
Conclusions: Overweight and obese children's PA levels didn't differ significantly from those of normal weight children when playing DDR. It seemed that, given practice experiences, overweight and obese children tend to be physically active in DDR.
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