Khaberni - A new study conducted by Curtin University has found that spending more than 10 hours weekly playing video games can significantly affect diet, sleep, and body weight in young adults.
The researchers conducted a survey involving 317 university students from 5 Australian universities, with an average age of 20 years.
The researchers divided the participants into 3 groups, based on the amount of time they reported spending on video gaming.
Classification of players by hours
The classification was as follows: least playing (0-5 hours weekly), average players (5-10 hours), and those who play video games extensively (more than 10 hours weekly).
According to "Medical Xpress", the team concluded that while the players who played minimally and moderately reported similar health outcomes, the results deteriorated significantly when the gaming time exceeded 10 hours weekly.
Dr. Mario Servo, who supervised the research, stated: "The results suggest that excessive gaming is the main problem, not gaming per se."
Servo added: "What is striking is that students who game up to 10 hours weekly appear very similar in terms of diet, sleep, and body weight."
The decisive number of hours
"The real differences appeared in those spending more than 10 hours weekly on gaming, where they clearly varied from the rest of the sample."
The researchers noted a decline in diet quality as soon as the gaming time exceeded 10 hours weekly, with an increased prevalence of obesity in the group of players who spend long hours gaming, compared to players who spend fewer or moderate hours.
