Physical Activity Levels of Adult Virtual Football Players

Abstract

Esports, including virtual football, are a worldwide phenomenon. Yet, little is known about the physical activity levels of individuals engaged in virtual football game play. Therefore, we aimed to perform a preliminary evaluation of the levels of physical activity, sedentarism, and habits of physical training of adults engaged with virtual football in Portugal. This was a cross-sectional investigation based on a structured online survey using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and a set of questions regarding habits of physical training. The participants (n = 433) reported spending a median of 5,625 MET-min⋅week−1 being physically active. Still, the participants spent 320 min/day sitting, and 150 min/day practicing virtual football. According to the IPAQ scores, high physical activity levels were reported by 84.5% of the participants, and 87.1% were considered physically active considering the WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior. Overall, 60.0% of the participants reported planning their own physical training. Maintaining or improving overall physical health was one of the main reasons for doing physical training (66.7%), with only 6.1% responding being active to improve virtual football performance. Overall, the results showed that virtual football players accomplished the standard recommendations for physical activity, with high levels of physical activity, and encompassing regular physical training focused mostly on health promotion, rather than improved virtual football performance.

Improving the Health of Emerging Adult Gamers—A Scoping Review of Influences

“…Engaging in virtual worlds and characters can make gamers consider societal problems or help them problem-solve real-world issues [ 47 , 104 ]. Gamers who play virtual sports games are also more likely to engage in the sport in real life [ 45 , 97 ]. Augmented games, which embed virtual elements into the real environment, have been shown to increase physical activity [ 77 , 88 , 102 ], whilst eSports, which involve players and teams competing in virtual games, attract audiences in both virtual and physical spaces [ 89 ].…”

Are Esports Players Inactive? A Systematic Review

“…The PA questionnaires of the other nine (n=9) studies were constructed by their authors. The studies of Pereira et al ( , 2021 were inspired by and used the Kari and Karhulahti (2016) questionnaire in their own questionnaires. Thus, in addition to references to the step scale and the IPAQ, the authors referred mainly to the WHO adult recommendations of 150 min/week.…”

“…Rudolf et al (2020) reported that 32.2% believed that physical fitness had very positive effects on in-game performance, and 48.1% believed it had a positive effect. In the studies by Kari and Karhulahti (2016) and Pereira et al (2021), 55.6% and 38.66% of the subjects believed that incorporating exercise into their training programs had a positive effect on their esports performance. However, Pereira et al (2021) also noted that for 45.11%, PA had no effect on in-game performance.…”

“…The virtual football players in the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) appeared to be very active (Pereira et al, , 2021, as did the MOBA players in Indonesia (Paramitha et al, 2021).…”

Sensorimotor Therapy Using Vestibular Stimulation: A Complementary Method for ‘Treatment’ of Developmental Coordination Disorder and a Possible Way to Awaken the Innate Potential for a Physically Active Life

“…We are well aware of the fact that sensorimotor difficulties are not the only reasons for physical inactivity and also that the level of activity can fluctuate from person to person, from day to day depending on the circumstances e.g., [68][69][70]. However, when foremost children are physically inactive we have to find out why.…”