Can Hi-Tech Avatars Promote Real-Life Weight Loss?

Virtual sessions on portion control and exercise helped women in small pilot study

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- Watching an avatar exercise and learn healthy habits in a virtual community might help people shed excess weight, a small new study suggests.

An avatar is the graphical or physical representation of the user, in video games or online, for instance.

"This pilot study showed that you don't have to be a gamer to use virtual reality to learn some important skills for weight loss," Melissa Napolitano, an associate professor of prevention and community health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, said in a university news release.

She added that the findings suggest "that virtual reality could be a promising new tool for building healthier habits."

The new study included eight overweight women who once a week watched a 15-minute DVD featuring an avatar demonstrating healthy weight-loss behaviors. In one lesson the avatar sat down for dinner and learned about portion sizes. In another lesson, the avatar used a treadmill and learned the walking pace needed to lose weight.

At the end of four weeks, the women had lost an average of 3.5 pounds, which Napolitano called a fairly typical amount for traditional diet plans. But it's hoped that by watching the avatar, people using this type of program would be much more likely to establish long-term healthy habits and keep the weight off for good, she said.

"This is just the first step to show that women -- even those who are not gamers -- are interested in an avatar-based technology to help them with a weight-loss plan," Napolitano said. "We are excited by the potential of this technology as a scalable tool to help people learn the skills to be successful at weight loss over the long run."

The study appeared in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.

If further studies show that this type of program is effective, it may offer an inexpensive way for millions of overweight and obese men and women to learn the skills and behaviors they need to lose weight and keep it off, Napolitano said.

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Jason Isaacs and January Jones promote Sweetwater at Sundance Film Festival

Celebrity Pictures and News: Sundance Film Festival photoshoot, where Jason Isaacs and January Jones are busy promoting their new flick Sweetwater – a western drama

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Pediatricians Promote Benefits of Recess

Dec. 31, 2012 -- The American Academy of Pediatrics has two New Year's resolutions for schools: Keep the school nurse and don't drop recess.

The recommendations are part of two new policy statements published in Pediatrics.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says there's a growing trend in schools to take away recess and use the time to teach subjects.

"There is pressure on schools to increase performance on standardized testing, and a lot of times teachers are using withdrawal of recess as a punishment for children," says Robert Murray, MD, a co-author of the recess policy statement and a professor at the Ohio State University in Columbus.

"Recess is an important part of the school day that should not be cast off without thinking," he says. 

It is not a reward, he says. Recess is necessary and important to help children learn and grow.  

"No matter what kind of recess, whether indoors or outdoors, structured or unstructured, kids need a safe place to play," Murray says. "And the equipment should be good and people who supervise should be well-trained."

The benefits of recess are many. "The child who gets regular breaks in the day performs better cognitively in the classroom and gets a lot of social and emotional benefits," he says. "Recess provides kids with the chance to be creative and play with others just for the fun of it."

It doesn't have to be a full hour or half-hour either, he says. Recess can come in shorter bursts of play time sprinkled throughout the school day. "We need to carve out time that belongs to a child."

Recess is not the same as physical education or gym either, says the policy statement's co-author Catherine Ramstetter, PhD. She is a health educator at the Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Cincinnati.

"Recess promotes a healthy learning environment. Importantly, recess should be used as a complement to physical education classes, not a substitute," she says. "It would be ideal if every school had deep pockets to build huge, amazing playgrounds. But every kid will play differently anyway, and every school doesn't have the resources. We need to protect recess as it benefits the whole child."

A second AAP policy statement wants schools to assign important roles for a school doctor and school nurse.

School doctors serve school districts as advisors, consultants, volunteers, team doctors, or school district doctors.

But there's no single set of rules for states and school districts about what a school doctor should do. The new policy statement wants all school districts to have a doctor to oversee health services.

What's more, school doctors should help coordinate policy and practice plans for kids with chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and asthma. The AAP policy statement says kids spend about seven hours a day,180  days a year, in school. During that time they may only see their doctor once a year.

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