The effects of Pokémon GO playing on daily steps: A retrospective observational study in Japanese male college students

Abstract

This retrospective observational study aimed to examine the effects of playing Pokémon GO on daily steps of male college students. Twenty-five Japanese male college students (20 ± 1 years) were assigned to Control group (C, n = 11) or Pokémon GO group (P, n = 14) based on their playing Pokémon GO or not. Daily step levels were obtained from the health care app of Apple iPhone from September 2016 to October 2016. In P group, the data for the 4 weeks to determine baseline values and for the 4 weeks of playing Pokémon GO were analyzed. The steps data of C group were also analyzed in the same period of the total 8 weeks. There were no significant differences in steps at baseline level between both groups. In addition, no significant time-course changes in steps were observed in C group. In contrast, steps in P group significantly increased from baseline 8,368 ± 544 steps/day to week 1 10,028 ± 617 steps/day (P < 0.01). The changes in steps from baseline to week 1 were significantly greater in P group than in C group (1,671 ± 345 vs. -81 ± 582, P < 0.01). However, the increased steps returned to baseline level by week 2, and the values did not increase again. Therefore, our findings indicate that playing Pokémon GO increases daily steps only during one week in Japanese male college students.