Exergame on Sleep and Emotion Among Students

Sleep deprivation and emotional problems such as stress, anxiety and depression commonly occur in university students. Exercise is beneficial to ameliorate those problems however university students are not serious to uptake physical activity. Commercially available exergame such as Xbox 360 Kinect is one of the alternatives. This study aims to investigate the feasibility and the potential efficacy of using Xbox 360 Kinect game among healthcare undergraduate students. A pilot two-armed parallel randomized controlled trial was implemented. A total of 36 undergraduate students was recruited and randomly allocated into the intervention group (playing Xbox 360 Kinect) or the control group (continue with normal daily routine). The intervention group received 30 minutes of Xbox Kinect activity, three times per week for six weeks. Information on psychology (DASS-21) and sleep (FOSQ-30) status were collected at pre- and post-experiment. The researcher-developed feasibility questionnaire was given to the participants in the intervention group at post-experiment. Repeated-measures ANOVA analysis was used to investigate within-between group comparison and significant value was set at p≤0.05. The analysis found potential improvement on sleep (p=0.039) and psychological health (p=0.002-0.067). The intervention protocol is feasible and highly accepted by the participants. Required optimum amount of dosage, sample size and used of outcome measures are suggested from the findings. This pilot and feasibility study support the use of Xbox 360 Kinect games in practice and to be implemented for future research.