Associations between video gaming and physical activity across Finnish 11y – 20y olds

Background:
Rising concerns that leisure time physical activity (PA) is being replaced by video gaming, yet there is a lack of evidence that the displacement hypothesis is true among adolescents.
Purpose: To examine the associations between video gaming and PA among Finnish 11y –20y olds, and how associations may change by school type.
Methods:
The self-reported Finnish School-aged Physical Activity (F-SPA) studies for 2020 (high school students) and 2022 (upper general secondary students) were pooled together. Two genres of video games, 1. sport simulations, and 2. esports, were categorized into “a lot” and “not a lot” of gaming. Single item moderate to vigorous PA for at least 60 minutes per day was converted into four categories (0–2; 3–4; 5–6, 7 days). Odds ratios via multinominal logistic regressions with reference = 0-2 days were performed.
Results:
More of the sample were from high school (n=2406) than upper general secondary School (n=946). Of these, 17% (n =552) of students reported playing a lot of sport simulation games, and 43% (n=1431) reported playing a lot of esports. Playing a lot of esports (5-6 days, OR = .7, CI=.57–.97; 7 days OR=.5, CI=.37–.70) was negatively, and playing a lot of sports simulation games (7 days, OR=1.6, CI=1.11–2.30) was positively associated with PA compared to the reference category.
Conclusions:
The displacement hypothesis was partly supported, depending on the genre of video games, namely playing esports. Contrary to the hypothesis, playing a lot of sport games was associated with more PA, suggesting the importance of sport simulations as part of a physical activity relationship.
Practical implications: Not all gaming is bad for health. Sports simulation gaming is part of a PA culture.
Funding: The study was funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.