Date of Award

Spring 5-2013

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Human Performance and Recreation

First Advisor

Michael J. Webster

Advisor Department

Human Performance and Recreation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the energy expenditure associated with two commercially available exergames (Dance Dance Revolution 2 (DDR2) and Wii Sports 1: Tennis) and evaluate whether or not this type of activity could be used as a means to obtain the recommended amount of physical activity. Thirty individuals (15 males, 15 females) participated in the study. Each participant attended 3 sessions: a 30-min familiarization session and 2, 45-min testing sessions. During each testing session, participants played one of the exergames for 30 min while continuously being measured for oxygen consumption (VO2), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), and heart rate (HR), and at specific intervals being assessed for their rating of perceived exertion (RPE). All data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 program for Windows. VO2, RER, HR, and RPE were analyzed using separate (time X game) factorial, repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. The results indicated significant differences for both VO2 and HR across time (p < 0.001), between groups (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively), and for game*time interaction (p = 0.015 and p < 0.001, respectively). There were no significant differences for RER over time (p = 0.283) or between games (p = 0.526). As expected, there was a significant rise in RPE over time (p < 0.001); however, there was no significant difference between groups (p = 0.316). DDR2 elicited a significantly higher (p < 0.001) total energy expenditure than Wii Sports 1: Tennis (DDR2 102.8 ± 32.3, Wii Sports 1 Tennis: 68.3 ± 21.3 kcal). Relative VO2 was converted to METs for each exergame, and DDR2 met the minimal criteria for moderate intensity physical activity (2.98 ± 0.76 METs).

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