San Jose State kinesiology student looks into benefits of Nintendo's Wii Fit

By Matt Wilson
mwilson@community-newspapers.com
Posted: 09/29/2011

A San Jose State graduate student is inviting older residents with free time and an appetite for exercise to come over and play some video games. Kinesiology student Ramonda Collins is asking people ages 60 to 80 to participate in a study to see if playing the Nintendo video game Wii Fit will improve their balance.

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Collins chose this research as part of her culminating master's thesis project. A high score in a video games, however, is not what Collins is after. Measurements for balance improvement is not taken from the game, but from the Berg Balance Scale, an industry standard balance measuring device. "The main goal is to see if they can improve their balance while on the Berg," Collins says. Some studies have already been done using the game, but the sample sizes were not large enough to be of conclusive interest, Collins says. "The goal for my study is [to] use a larger sample size and see if the Wii Fit does help improve balance over a two-month period," she says.

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