Youth Movement: Childhood Obesity Study Uses Video Games

“When fifth-graders from Coolidge Elementary play video games at school, their teachers don't complain, they don't get detention and their parents are not notified. The students are taking part in a scientific study. Wearing accelerometers around their waists to measure body movements, the students play "Dance Dance Revolution” twice a week during their physical education class for eight weeks. The goal of the study designed by Dr. Casey Hester, a pediatrician at OU Children's Physicians, is to compare the body mass indexes, body compositions and physical activity levels of the children before and after participating in the study. With the incidence of childhood obesity increasing every year in America, any activity that gets kids off the couch and moving is a good thing, experts say. Since the 1970s, childhood obesity has increased from 5 percent to now 20 percent of children falling into the category of obese, said Dr. Kenneth Copeland, section chief of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.”


http://www.newsok.com/article/3203432/