Prevençao primária: Crianças e vídeogame, se não pode vencê-los... - by Fábio Soares

AHA-Nintendo summit asks: Will video games battle obesity?

April 28, 2011 | Reed Miller

San Francisco, CA - Researchers at a summit cohosted by the American Heart Association (AHA) and Nintendo are optimistic that video games, once a hallmark of sedentary lifestyles, can be transformed into a force for cardiovascular health. But even as so-called "active games" receive positive responses from cardiologists, some point to the dollars behind the partnership and call for an emphasis on transparency.

In January, 75 experts from the fields of game design, medicine, public health, education, communications, psychology, and fitness gathered at the University of California, San Francisco. According to a summary of the meeting proceedings by Dr Debra Lieberman (University of California, Santa Barbara) and colleagues, now published online April 25, 2011 in Circulation [1], the AHA-Nintendo relationship is an "important effort in the AHA's 2020 impact goal," and this conference was "a fundamental first step . . . to begin examining the potential opportunities and benefits of the use of active-play video games to help children and adults avoid sedentary behavior."

"We are so delighted to be in a prestigious medical journal to get to an audience that really needs to see some credible research before they're going to embrace our field," Lieberman told heartwire. "This conference showed that we have a good body of research now done by really good researchers and we can really start making claims about the value of these games."

One of the other authors of the summit proceedings, Dr Barry Franklin (Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI), told heartwire that the meeting "fulfilled AHA's goal of saying, Let's begin to look at things beyond the structured exercise programs—that is, contemporary technologies—to try to get more people off the chair and physically active."

In the AHA's 2009 annual report, Nintendo is listed as a donor within the $10 000-to-$24 999 range. In 2010, Nintendo of America and the AHA announced a more formal partnership and revealed that Nintendo has given the AHA $1.5 million. The AHA granted the company the right to put the organization's AHA "heart check" logo on all Wii virtual exercise and active game systems—a move that prompted one forum contributor on theheart.org to ask if the AHA would also be offering its checkmark for bicycles and basketballs. At the time, AHA president Dr Clyde Yancy (Northwestern University, Chicago, IL) defended AHA's deal with Nintendo, citing the company's pioneering development of games that require the player to do more than just push buttons.

Franklin agrees. "After reviewing the research, I came to the sobering realization that these games may have a profound impact on public health and that's why I got behind it," he said. "I work with a number of scientists who are naysayers who say 'show me the data.' . . . I'm not saying that the Nintendo Wii prevents heart attacks or has major effects on risk factors, but the data clearly show that, depending on the game played and the population, it can increase energy expenditure two- to fivefold. . . . So researchers look at this and say, 'This has the potential to replace a walk, which we know is therapeutic and beneficial.' "

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http://www.theheart.org/article/1217531.do