Cardiovascular effects in adolescents while they are playing video games: A potential health risk factor?

Abstract

We analyzed heart rate (HR), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP), oxygen consumption, and carbon dioxide production in 17 male adolescents during a racing simulation video game (VG) and compared to resting state (RS) and exercise testing (ET) measures. We were able to demonstrate a significant (p<.005) increase from RS to VG concerning HR (+13.1 bpm), SBP (+20.8 mmHg), and DBP (+12.1 mmHg) with SBP and DBP elevations exceeding 2 SD in all children and 14/17 children, respectively. The energy consumption during VG (max 1.71 kcal/min) was unaltered compared to RS and significantly lower compared to ET even at the starting strain of 25 W (1.94 kcal/min). Hemodynamic parameters tested demonstrated lower HR, unchanged SBP, and higher DBP during the VG compared with ET. Comparing all measured parameters it can be said that the relation of blood pressure and energy consumption during VG might not be favorable.

Video game playing time and cardiometabolic risk in adolescents: The AFINOS study

“…On the other hand, several experimental studies in laboratories found that video games have a negative short-term impact on cardiometabolic factors such as heart rate variability and blood pressure in children and adolescents after playing. 4,5,8 Interestingly, our results show that only console games are related to cardiometabolic biomarkers, even adolescents spent less time in console games than in computer games in our sample. Although possible explanations for the device-specific association observed cannot be tested in the current study, the different type of games played in computer and console devices might be important.…”

“…Although possible explanations for the device-specific association observed cannot be tested in the current study, the different type of games played in computer and console devices might be important. [4][5][6]8 Nowadays video games are not considered totally dangerous for health. For example, some specific video games have been developed for health promotion in schools and home settings.…”

“…2,3 The influence of other sedentary behavior as video games playing on cardiometabolic health in youth is scarce and limited to experimental studies in laboratory settings -short-term effects. [4][5][6] Whether an excess of playing video games may contribute to cardiometabolic abnormalities in children and adolescents is unknown.…”

Cardiovascular responses induced by acute video game boxing performance in healthy women

“…We could argue that previous findings were potentially due to the initial excitement and that children, during the playing time, could physiologically adapt to multiple stimuli. Only in one analyzed study did subjects play four different games of 15 min each in a randomly determined order, dividing the 15-min game periods into five 3-min trials 13 . Their baseline values of heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure during each period did not differ, but the changes during the diverse game periods were significantly different.…”

Primary hypertension and special aspects of hypertension in older children and adolescents

“…Among 88 healthy youngsters aged 7–13 years, born to at least one parent with primary hypertension, elevated systolic blood pressure responses to an acute stress from five minutes of video game playing was predictive of higher systolic blood pressure by ABPM 2.5 years later 129. A recent report in healthy German boys aged 12–14 years, using more updated video games with complicated controllers, demonstrated systolic and diastolic blood pressures rise exceeding two standard deviations in 14 of 17 subjects during 12 minutes of playing 130. Further, this study also found similar systolic and higher diastolic blood pressures, despite less energy consumption during video game playing compared with riding a bicycle ergometer 130.…”