Study into correlation between playing video games and obesity in children

Are you worried that your child will gain weight as they are mostly rolling on the sofa for hours and playing video games? Well, this conjecture might be true, but only for grown-ups. A recent study has looked into this correlation and was published in the journal, 'Social Science and Medicine'.

Professor Markus Appel, a psychologist at the University of Wurzburg, said, "The study contradicts this stereotype for children and teenagers. In adults, there is a slight positive correlation between playing video games and body mass."

The professor along with his fellow companions conducted a meta-analysis comprising a total of 20 relevant studies with more than 38,000 participants.

However, the analysis highlighted only a small correlation between playing video games and excess weight.

Thus, the study states that only one per cent of a person's overweight can thus be attributed to his/her time spent playing video games, reported Medical Express.

The study says that there was no link established for children and teenagers."It may be that people who are overweight are more likely to continue their hobby of playing video games during the transition to adulthood whereas new leisure time activities become more important for others," Appel opinioned.

However, in the past, several studies have been conducted to understand the link between gaming and overweight.

"Overweight and obesity are usually associated with sedentary media consumption such as watching television or playing non-active video games," the team of researchers wrote in the journal.

The researchers also examined the indirect effect of playing video games on children and teenagers.

"We identified a significant indirect effect which shows that people who spend more time playing video games also spend less time exercising and therefore weigh more or have more body mass."

The scientists considered only those video games for their study which are played while relaxing and sitting on a couch Active video games such as Wii Sports or Pokemon Go, which require the players to move, were not taken into consideration for the study.