title: How Effective Are Active Videogames Among the Young and the Old? Adding Meta-analyses to Two Recent Systematic Reviews.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Two recent systematic reviews have surveyed the existing evidence for the effectiveness of active videogames in children/adolescents and in elderly people. In the present study, effect sizes were added to these systematic reviews, and meta-analyses were performed.
  
  
  METHODS
  All reviewed studies were considered for inclusion in the meta-analyses, but only studies were included that investigated the effectiveness of active videogames, used an experimental design, and used actual health outcomes as the outcome measures (body mass index for children/adolescents [k=5] and functional balance for the elderly [k=6]).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average effect of active videogames in children and adolescents was small and nonsignificant: Hedges' g=0.20 (95 percent confidence interval, -0.08 to 0.48). Limited heterogeneity was observed, and no moderator analyses were performed. For the effect of active videogames on functional balance in the elderly, the analyses revealed a medium-sized and significant effect of g=0.68 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.13-1.24). For the elderly studies, substantial heterogeneity was observed. Moderator analyses showed that there were no significant effects of using a no-treatment control group versus an alternative treatment control group or of using games that were especially created for health-promotion purposes versus off-the-shelf games. Also, intervention duration and frequency, sample size, study quality, and dropout did not significantly moderate the effect of active videogames.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of these meta-analyses provide preliminary evidence that active videogames can have positive effects on relevant outcome measures in children/adolescents and elderly individuals.
authors.affiliation: 1 Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen , Nijmegen, The Netherlands .
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van 't Riet
authors.affiliation: 2 School for Public Health and Primary Care (CAPHRI), Maastricht University , The Netherlands .
authors.forename: Rik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crutzen
authors.affiliation: 3 School of Communication, Northwestern University , Evanston, Illinois.
authors.forename: Amy Shirong
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lu