Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jun;6(3):165-170.
doi: 10.1089/g4h.2017.0009.

"Pokémon Go!" May Promote Walking, Discourage Sedentary Behavior in College Students

Jacob E Barkley  1 , Andrew Lepp  2 , Ellen L Glickman  1
Affiliations

"Pokémon Go!" May Promote Walking, Discourage Sedentary Behavior in College Students

Jacob E Barkley et al. Games Health J. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To assess self-reported walking and sedentary behavior in young adults before and after downloading "Pokémon Go!".

Materials and methods: In September 2016, a sample of 358 (19.8 ± 2.1 years old, n = 187 females) college students who had downloaded "Pokémon Go!" on their cellular telephones (i.e., cell phones) were surveyed for weekly walking and sedentary behavior via the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. A single interview was administered to participants who estimated their walking and sedentary behavior at three time points: the week immediately preceding their download of "Pokémon Go!" (Baseline), the first week after downloading the game (Time 1), and the week the survey was completed (Time 2). Differences in self-reported physical activity and sedentary behavior across the three time points and across the two genders were compared via analyses of variance.

Results: There was a significant main effect of time (F ≥ 49.3, P ≤ 0.001) for walking and sedentary behavior. Participants reported greater (t ≥ 9.5, P < 0.001) daily walking during Time 1 (218.6 ± 156.3 minutes) and Time 2 (182.7 ± 172.1 minutes) versus the baseline (108.5 ± 110.8 minutes). Walking behavior was also significantly greater (t = 4.1, P < 0.001) at Time 1 versus Time 2. Participants reported greater (t ≥ 6.5, P < 0.001) daily sedentary behavior during baseline (346.6 ± 201.3 minutes) versus both Time 1 (261.7 ± 172.4 minutes) and Time 2 (284.3 ± 175.4 minutes). Sedentary behavior was also significantly greater (t = 2.6, P = 0.03) at Time 2 versus Time 1. There were no effects of gender (F ≤ 1.8, P ≥ 0.17).

Conclusion: Playing "Pokémon Go!" was associated with increased self-reported walking and decreased sedentary behavior. Such games hold promise as technology that may promote physical activity and discourage sedentary behavior.

Keywords: Augmented reality; Cell phones; Geocaching; Physical activity; Physically interactive videogames.

PubMed Disclaimer

LinkOut - more resources