Background/Purpose: A plethora of empirical studies have documented that exergamings generated remarkably physiological and psychological benefits among children, adolescents and adults (Graves et al., 2010). But comprehensive reviews in this area of inquiry are scarce. This project attempts to present a systematic review of the effects of exergamings on individuals' physiological and psychological outcomes. Methods: A total of 64 studies published from 1991 to 2011 were identified from ERIC, Sage, SportDiscus, WilsonWeb, and PubMed. Among them, 51 studies met the selection criteria and were analyzed into three categories: health behavior, exercise motivation, and rehabilitation.
Analysis/Results: Compared with traditional video games, 33 of the 34 studies indicated that playing exergamings could significantly elicit greater body movement and higher energy expenditure, and were equivalent in intensity to moderate to vigorous physical activities. Only one study suggested that there was no significant difference. Moreover, children who played exergamings increased their daily fruit and vegetable intake. In terms of the effects on exercise motivation, 11 studies indicated participants playing exergamings demonstrated higher exercise enjoyment and adherence than those performingd traditional video games or general exercises. Additionally, six studies suggested that exergamings had favorable and positive effects on the rehabilitation of the participants with some level of mobility impairment, cerebral palsy and psychological problems.
Conclusions: Beyond the summary of the findings, this review also highlights limitations of the existing studies (e.g., small sample, one-dimensional focus), and provides future directions (e.g., population-based study among elementary children; effects on the various aspects of child development).
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