BMJ: Pokemon GO won't keep you fit; game only produces shortlived improvement in exercising

Remember those steamy summer nights when you'd be walking for hours, smartphone in hand, trying to catch Pokemon while playing Pokemon GO? And when your spouse or parents or friends looked at you like you were Mr. Mime, complaining that you were spending too much time on that dang game, you responded that all of that walking was making you fit and healthy.

As it turns out, any health effects from playing Pokemon GO were shortlived according to a report in the British Medical Journal. For this survey, the medical publication recruited U.S. Pokemon GO players aged 18 to 35. All of them had to use an Apple iPhone 6 because of its ability to automatically record the number of steps taken while being held. Participants were paid $2 (and your mom told you that you couldn't make any money playing Pokemon all day!).

The bottom line is that Pokemon GO players started fast when they downloaded the game. During the first week of game play, they showed an average increase of 955 steps a day over the non-players, who kept walking at their baseline pace. By the sixth week though, the additional steps tallied by players over non-players was only 130, and the players were back to their baseline. Considering that interventions designed to get people up and walking add 2500 steps a day over a longer term period, we'd say that Pokemon GO really doesn't appear to provide any long lasting fitness benefit. The BMJ said so, too.

The Journal did point out the limitations in its survey. Not every player uses an iPhone 6 to play, and steps were counted only when a player had the iPhone 6 in his/her hand. In addition, the survey covered U.S. players only. On the other hand, there are sure to be some Pokemon GO players who lost a lot of weight. Video game players are usually not active; for many, playing Pokemon GO brought about a major change in lifestyle.

"Results: 560 (47.4%) of the survey participants reported playing Pokémon GO and walked on average 4256 steps (SD 2697) each day in the four weeks before installation of the game. The difference in difference analysis showed that the daily average steps for Pokémon GO players during the first week of installation increased by 955 additional steps (95% confidence interval 697 to 1213), and then this increase gradually attenuated over the subsequent five weeks. By the sixth week after installation, the number of daily steps had gone back to pre-installation levels. No significant effect modification of Pokémon GO was found by sex, age, race group, bodyweight status, urbanity, or walkability of the area of residence.

Conclusions: Pokémon GO was associated with an increase in the daily number of steps after installation of the game. The association was, however, moderate and no longer observed after six weeks.-BMJ"