Promoting health and fitness through exergames - presentation

by Kristina Ticknor on May 07, 2012

Presented at the CDC's Health Communication, Marketing and Media Conference

Promoting health and fitness through exergames

View more PowerPoint from Kristina Ticknor

A balancing act so watch it

Bianca Clare | 31st March 2012
www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au

A GROUP of Sunshine Coast seniors is set to spend more time in front of the television to see if it helps improve their co-ordination and balance.

University of Sunshine Coast PhD student and physiotherapist Vaughan Nicholson is examining whether the co-ordination and balance for people aged over 55 can be improved by playing Nintendo Wii Fit virtual games.

+/- Click for more/less

The video game has different activities including yoga poses, push-ups, strength, balance and aerobic exercises. Mr Nicholson said laboratory testing of participants from Lend Lease's Hibiscus Bellflower Retirement Resort and Hibiscus Chancellor Park began last week. "The average age of the participants is early 70s," he said. "We are trying to determine if taking part in a Wii Fit balance program improves several clinical and laboratory-based measures of balance and mobility. "Those measures then have a relatively direct relationship to predicting falls."

The Wii Fit includes a balance board that records movements and gives feedback. Mr Nicholson said participants were required to complete three 30-minute sessions a week, over a six-week period, at their retirement villages. "They will have nine balance games to select from, including tightrope walking and ski slalom. "We'll also look at the enjoyment they gain by playing these games because one of the protocols is that they have to do the gaming with at least one other person." Mr Nicolson said his project would be the first to examine potential benefits of Wii Fit on healthy, independent older adults.

Click here for more info

Get My Fit Data - Wii Fit Data Extraction and Export tool

This online tool is designed to allow you to export weight, bmi, and other fitness data from the Wii Fit for analysis on your computer or upload to other systems. It accepts a back-up data.bin file from Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus games.

Get My Fit Data - Wii Fit Data Extraction and Export tool

It offers the potential for therapists to download the usage of the game and attribute basic information to patients/clients using the game and console.

There is more information about data extraction at the following weblink:

http://www.huanix.com/2010/04/03/export-wii-fit-data-to-a-csv-for-import-into-excel-or-database/

Can a video game make you fit?

by Johnny Minkley, Nov 24, 2011

You could point to Wii Sports as the active gaming's 'Big Bang' moment, or, going even further back, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series in arcades and on PlayStations – the first game series, to my knowledge, to feature a calorie counter.

 +/- Click for more/less

But it wasn't until Wii Fit in 2007 that video game fitness became Big Business. Here's some hardcore stat-porn for you: Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus have sold over 40 million copies, making them among the biggest selling home console titles in history; the Balance Board, that plastic tray Nintendo made for Wii Fit, had shifted over 34 million units by the end of last year; and Zumba Fitness, the awful cash-in based on that terrifying dance craze enjoyed by wild-eyed women, spent ten weeks at number one in the UK all-formats games chart this year.

The classic hardcore gamer response is either to sneer at fat idiots frittering away more money chasing an impossible dream, or to despair at the credibility collapse of their special hobby.

 Me? I think the craze is brilliant. Yes, most fitness gamers are (ironically) lazy, rubbish bandwagon jumpers. But I happen to believe it is a wonderful thing that the entertainment medium I have been obsessed with for most of my life is evolving to become something more than just entertainment, something that actually contributes to the social good (which I wrote about in more detail in a previous column).

cont...

Click here for more

Working to stop falls

LIZ MACINTYRE
06 Oct, 2011 12:00 AM

REDUCING the number of falls by the elderly in the home is about striking a balance between safety and independence, Mount Isa's inaugural Healthy Ageing Expo has been told.

The expo at the Mount Isa Civic Centre yesterday attracted a crowd of about 60 elderly, some with walkers and walking sticks, a few in wheelchairs and many able-bodied.

The expo, organised by Mount Isa Senior Safety (MISS) and funded by the Mount Isa City Council, was a falls prevention information day with 10 community organisations providing interactive stalls with everything from free blood pressure-testing to podiatry advice to a session on a Wii-fit (computer game) to gauge how good your balance is.

+/- Click for more/less

There are more than 17,000 older Queenslanders each year having fall-related injuries, and MISS was keen to stress the benefits of healthy ageing as a preventive measure. Occupational therapist Susan Elliott, one of the organisers and a member partner of MISS said she was very excited by the numbers attending. "For our first expo, it was an excellent turnout and I received really good feedback from those who attended." A range of health professionals gave short addresses on preventing falls and living healthily.

Occupational therapist Jessica Donegan said most falls occured in the home - the bedroom, garden or living area - so the audience was given simple tips on how to make their homes safer. "Frail older people, people with a disability and carers may be eligible for subsidised home modifications," Ms Donegan said.

 Dementia adviser Jenn O'Neill said people with dementia were at greater risk of falling. "Dementia is most prevalent in the 85 and over age group," Ms O'Neill said. "In fact a third of the population over 85 have dementia." Among those with dementia, 75 to 80 per cent are likely to have a fall, and those who do suffer falls are more likely to be admitted to nursing homes. "Carers need to strike a balance between safety and independence," Ms O'Neill said. "It is important for people with disabilities to stay active."

Physiotherapist Andrea Leigh said physical activity could help manage and possibly prevent chronic conditions and she encouraged her audience to be more active. "It is never too late. "Think of movement as an opportunity, not an inconvenience." Ms Leigh said falls were the highest cause of hospitalisation for over 65 year olds. "Exercise improves balance and helps prevent falls and injury," she said and advised those who weren't currently exercising to see their GP first.

Click for more info

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.

+/- Click for more/less

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.

Click here for more

Video Games Help ICU Patients With Physical Therapy

October 11, 2011

Video Games Help ICU Patients With Physical Therapy,

+/- Click for more/less

Interactive video games on consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit can enhance physical therapy for patients in intensive care units, according to a study published in the Journal of Critical Care, United Press International reports.


Methodology
For the one-year study, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine evaluated 22 patients ages 32 to 64 who were admitted to the hospital for cardiovascular disease, respiratory failure, sepsis or other health issues (United Press International, 10/8).

The patients participated in 42 physical therapy sessions that included 20 minutes of playing interactive video games featuring boxing, bowling, balance boards and other activities aimed at improving stamina and balance (Walker, "Picture of Health," Baltimore Sun, 10/3).


Study Findings
Researchers found that the interactive video games increased patients' interest in physical therapy (Galbraith, Examiner, 10/4). Dale Needham, senior author of the study, said, "[W]hen properly selected and supervised by experienced physical therapists, patients enjoyed the challenge of the video games and welcomed the change from their physical therapy routines" (United Press International, 10/8).

Needham added that video games are cost effective compared with other physical therapies used in ICUs. Michelle Kho, study leader, said additional research is needed to determine "what physical therapy goals best benefit from video games" (Examiner, 10/4)

  Click here to read more

Patients Experience Wii-Habilitation at Banner Boswell Hospital

Monday, 15 Aug 2011,
www.myfoxphoenix.com

SUN CITY, Ariz. - Many rehabilitation centers are now using the Nintendo Wii and other video game systems in therapy to motivate their patients.

For a Sun City man, it's helping him learn to walk again.

+/- Click for more/less

The 76-year-old was in perfect health until recently. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. LaJoie can't walk and can barely move out of the wheel chair. He can't sit for long periods of time either.

"So from the tips of the toes, it crawls all the way up and makes it difficult for folks to walk..causes some sensory changes," said Dr. Natalya Faynboym of the Banner Boswell Rehab Center.

The main thing slowing down his progress - he keeps looking down at his feet. So the staff at Banner put a video game by his side during his rehab sessions.

"It tends to take my mind off of looking at my feet and my feet want to work better," said LaJoie. "It takes the focus away from the task and it becomes effortless."

Banner Boswell has been using this system in their sessions for about two years and it's a great help.

"It's an effortless way to relearn the basic skills that are otherwise tedious," said Faynboym.

Banner Boswell Medical Center
10401 W. Thunderbird Blvd.
Sun City, AZ 85351
(623) 977-7211
www.bannerhealth.com

For more info click here

Fighting diabetes with just a Wii bit of exercise

Max Mason
July 29, 2011

Computer games could be the answer to combatting diabetes according to Dr Hugh Senior, Associate Professor in the school of medicine at the University of Queensland.

New research to be undertaken at UQ's Ipswich campus is set to examine how interactive gaming such as the Nintendo Wii can help improve diabetes sufferers' health and quality of living.

"We're looking at new technology as a form exercise, these new interactive games started out for children are now a new form of doing exercise," said Senior.

+/- Click for more/less

A government survey conducted in 2008 showed that 61.4 per cent of adult Australians are overweight or obese.
"People are ending up with diabetes unfortunately due to the environment they're living in and as a result the prevalence of diabetes is increasing," said Senior. "It's very easy to access high energy density foods and as such people are putting on more weight and also not exercising."

Dr Senior said the correlation between weight and diabetes put a huge amount of the population at risk.
"The prevalence of diabetes type 2 has doubled over the past 20 years, seven per cent of adults now have diabetes type 2 and an additional 16 per cent of adults have glucose intolerance, a precursor for developing diabetes."

Previous research has shown that playing the Nintendo Wii's tennis game for 30 minutes is equivalent to a half-hour brisk walk in terms of energy expended.

Click for more

UWI study finds Nintendo games effective in treating cerebral palsy

BY NADINE WILSON Observer staff reporter wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, June 09, 2011

A study conducted by the School of Physical Therapy (SPT) at the University of West Indies, Mona, has found that some video games are effective in the treatment of children living with cerebral palsy and also offer promise for patients suffering from strokes and spinal cord injuries.

+/- Click for more/less

The study, which is being edited for publication in the British Physiotherapy Journal, was carried out by a group of researchers from the university in May 2009. The researchers analysed the motor function scores of six children suffering from cerebral palsy after they had played the Nintendo Wii twice weekly for six weeks. The students, ages six to 12 years, participated in boxing, baseball and tennis games using the Wii console, which uses a computer simulated environment.

Dr Sharmella Roopchand-Martin, who specialises in nuero-rehabilitation at SPT, said all the children involved in the study had improvements in their gross motor function scores at the end of the six weeks of training.

Read more here

Wii Could Aide Patients COPD Patients May 2011

BY Debbie Nicholson May 17, 2011

A new study from researchers at University of Connecticut Health Center, state that Nintendo’s Wii Fit video game makes working out more pleasurable. While it promotes the kind of physical activity persons with breathing problems require. Patients are more apt to use it for exercise.

+/- Click for more/less

Dr. Jeffrey Albores, University of Connecticut Health Center states that regular exercise provides benefits to those with COPD. Exercise increases overall muscle tone while improving cardiopulmonary fitness. Managing to get patients to exercise at home is ideal however, it can be hard to manage, and particularly for COPD patients whose exercise tolerance may be limited.

In 2007, Nintendo had revealed Wii Fit™ which had included exercise activities, games along with yoga, balance and strength exercises and aerobic activities.

Link to full article

Ready for some Wii-habilitation? Feb 2011

By RICHARD BARBER

London - When world-renowned flautist Sir James Galway fell down the stairs, badly breaking his left wrist and shattering his right elbow, he feared his career could be over.

But the musician, who made his name with a classical repertoire, found the solution in a very modern technology - the Nintendo Wii games console.

+/- Click for more/less

Belfast-born Sir James had his accident early on a December morning in 2009, a fortnight after his 70th birthday.

After waking in his house near Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, at 4.30am with his mind racing, he made his way out of his bedroom, along an unlit corridor and into his music room to write two letters that had been preoccupying him.

The task completed, he walked towards the dark corridor leading to his bedroom, but took a step to the left and pitched headlong down 13 wooden stairs, each with a metal rim.

“I didn’t have my glasses on,” he says. “Who knows what damage I’d have done to my face if I’d been wearing them?”

As he plunged down the stairs, Sir James tried to twist his body so he didn’t land face first. “I was conscious of protecting my teeth. But the natural instinct is to put out your arms to lessen the impact of the fall.”

The result was a fractured left wrist and a broken and dislocated right elbow. He was bleeding from two cuts to his head.Somehow, he managed to stagger back up the stairs, stumble to the bathroom and call for his wife, Jeanie.

“I was just so relieved that Jimmy had been strong enough to brace himself as he fell,” says Jeanie. “He could so easily have flipped over and broken his neck.”

Even so, she was taking no chances and insisted her husband have an MRI scan of his head - it took half-an-hour and revealed no damage.

However, an X-ray showed the bone in his right elbow that allows the lower arm to bend had been badly broken.

Sir James’s future ability to hold a flute at the correct angle would hinge on the surgeon’s skill in restoring mobility to the shattered joint.

During a two-hour operation, five titanium screws, each about one-and-a-half inches long, were inserted in the elbow, with the hope that the shattered bones would knit together around them. His left wrist was put in a cast.

Within a week, Sir James was having therapy on his right arm.

Click for more

Wii not so hot for fitness -- but works well for rehab | Standard-Examiner

By Brad Gillman
Standard-Examiner staff
Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Video game creators have a new controller -- you.

The phenomenon started four years ago when Nintendo released the Wii console, which uses hand controllers and your movement to control the game. This winter has seen others invade the market, with the Playstation Move and the Xbox Kinect.

+/- Click for more/less

Wii Fit, released in 2008, introduced the idea that fitness and video games could coexist. Now the studies have started trickling in -- and the news is not as promising.
"Nearly all of these research studies have a similar conclusion," said Dale Wagner, health professor at Utah State University, in an e-mail interview. "The interactive video games increase heart rate and energy expenditure compared to sedentary computer games. However, the increase in heart rate with these games corresponds to only light to moderate intensity."

Wagner said the studies show that the games on average raised the heart rate between 40 percent to 60 percent. The American College of Sports Medicine noted that moderate-intensity workouts need to be over 60 percent -- meaning that these video games fall short of moderate intensity.

Read More - click here

Nintendo Wii helps Parkinson’s sufferer overcomes illness

A business analyst who was struck down with debilitating Parkinson’s disease has overcome her symptoms – by using the Nintendo Wii.

+/- Click for more/less

High-flying Jo Collinge, 48, was diagnosed with the disease disease 18 months ago after her shakes and sleeplessness were originally blamed on executive stress.

The trembles in her right leg became so bad she could not walk across her daughter’s school playground.

She began using her childrens’ Wii Fit shortly after and says the programme has ”massively improved” her symptoms.

Mother-of-two Jo now uses the Wii for 45 minutes every day and has designed her own work out using the slalom, step, hula hooping, yoga and even BOXING games.

She said: ”When I got the diagnosis it was a terrible shock. I had been hoping they would tell me there was nothing wrong but they said I had Parkinson’s, which is incurable.

”I started using the Wii of my own accord, because exercise improves the condition, and I have really noticed a difference.

Click here for more

MS patients sought for Hope College study of Wii Fit's rehab potential

HOLLAND — Maureen Dunn of the Hope College kinesiology faculty is hoping to find area residents with multiple sclerosis who share her interest in exploring the Nintendo Wii Fit's potential for enhancing balance and mobility.

+/- Click for more/less

Dunn is seeking participants for a year-long pilot study to determine whether or not the Wii Fit can be an effective home-based rehabilitation tool for individuals with MS. The project, which will begin early next year, is being supported through a $32,487 award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. It is work that hits close to home for Dunn. Her father was diagnosed with MS while she was in middle school, and she was diagnosed with it herself in 2004.

MS is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system — made up of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. Dunn, who is an associate professor of kinesiology at Hope, noted that the disease's effects and severity vary from patient to patient, and can range from numbness in limbs to paralysis to loss of vision. Empathizing very directly with the need, she hopes that her work will help provide a new tool to help at least some of those who have the disease.

Click here for more

Nintendo Wii has big benefits for elderly

Nintendo Wii has big benefits for elderly, say experts
VIRTUAL HULA-HOOPING AND SKI-ING ARE GOOD FOR REINFORCING SENSE OF BALANCE
Published: 30/09/2010

HULA-hooping and ski-ing on a popular computer games console may save elderly people from falling over, scientists said yesterday.

Studies carried out by Aberdeen University and NHS Grampian showed the Nintendo Wii could improve their balance through a series of weekly exercises.

Dr Alison Jenkinson of Aberdeen University, who led the study, said: “The Wii is a lot of fun for older people.

+/- Click for more/less

“If you ask them to lean from side to side 10 times in a row they get bored but if they’re ski-ing down a slope on the screen it makes it much more enjoyable. It has also been shown to improve balance.

“We did this wanting to boost people’s muscle strength, reduce their falls and stop them getting hurt and this gives us a lot of hope.”

Fifteen volunteers from Aberdeen who have fallen at least once in the last 12 months were recruited for the study and took part in 12 weekly sessions at the city’s Woodend Hospital.

Click for more original article
Click for University of Aberdeen news article

Wii Fit Effective as Physical Therapy For Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Since its launch in 2006, the Nintendo Wii Fit game console not only has been popularized as a way for players to get in shape, but as a growing form of rehabilitation and physical therapy. Now, researchers have found that Wii Fit can be effectively used to deliver physical therapy for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) foot disease.

+/- Click for more/less

A new study presented at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) 2010 Congress in Rome, Italy examined “the feasibility and value of the Wii Fit console in the assessment and rehabilitation of RA foot disease,” according to the authors. The Wii Fit guides players through various exercises by simulating sports and other activities, digitalizing player movements and displaying them on a television screen. It also includes a stand-on balance board that converts foot pressure into the on-screen display.

Researchers from the Burton Hospital Foundation Trust in Burton-on-Trent in the United Kingdom studied 13 patients (10 women; mean age, 57 years) with inflammatory arthritis and moderate to severe planovalgus deformity. Over six sessions, the patients were asked to use the Wii Fit and the balance board to steer balls into an on-screen tilt table. The task gained difficulty with the addition of more balls. The researchers measured one-leg standing balance (the mean of five attempts per leg), Visual analog scale (VAS) pain score and the Wii Fit score before and after each session. Activity-specific balance confidence (a measure of confidence to balance) and “timed up and go” (a measure of standing and dynamic balance) were recorded for the first and last sessions.

Link to Full article