Can exergames impart health messages? game play, framing, and drivers of physical activity among children

This study examines the effectiveness of incorporating exergaming into physical education (PE) lessons as a platform for imparting health education messages and influencing children’s beliefs about and attitudes toward physical activity. We deployed a six-week intervention program using Nintendo Wii...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lwin, May Oo, Malik, Shelly
Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/102256
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/19914
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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Summary:This study examines the effectiveness of incorporating exergaming into physical education (PE) lessons as a platform for imparting health education messages and influencing children’s beliefs about and attitudes toward physical activity. We deployed a six-week intervention program using Nintendo Wii games coupled with protection motivation theory-based health messaging among fifth-grade school children in Singapore. The results indicate that when children who were exposed to threat-framed messages played Wii exergames during PE lessons, they reported more positive physical activity attitude, self-efficacy, and perceived behavioral control than those who underwent regular PE lessons and were exposed to the same message. In addition, among children playing Wii, the threat and coping frames had similar effects on the degree of message influence on physical activity attitudes and beliefs. The implications for schools, parents, and health policy are discussed.