Exercising video games might help diabetic patients, finds study

The authors of a new study are warning people with type-1 diabetes to use fitness video games with caution. The study has found that 'exergames' can change people's perceptions of how fatigued they are -- which is potentially harmful for those with the condition. Study published in Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies.

Most patients use a simple chart to measure how exerted they feel on a scale of 1 -- 10, from hardly at all to using maximum effort. While this has proven to be effective for traditional exercise, researchers wanted to investigate whether this scale can also be used when exercising with video games.

The trial assessed correlations between physiological measurements of exercise intensity, including metabolic equivalent (MET), oxygen consumption and heart rate in both real and virtual sessions. Type-1 diabetes patients performed two 30-minute sessions of moderate-intensity exercise, either running or playing the Kinect Adventures! video game.

"This highlights that it is crucial to exercise caution when extending use of the 6 -- 20 point RPE scale to other types of exercise, especially virtual sessions, as they may not accurately reflect the physiological and metabolic intensity of the exercise."

The researchers recommend that older measurement tools such as the 6 -- 20 point RPE scale should be adapted to newer types of virtual game platforms.

Reference: Jorge Luiz de Brito Gomes, Pooya Soltani, Rhennan Rodrigues Barbosa, José Adevalton Feitosa Gomes, Manoel da Cunha Costa. Is rating of perceived exertion a valid method for monitoring exergaming intensity in type-1 diabetics? A cross-sectional randomized trial. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 2023; 36: 432 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbmt.2023.05.018