Physical Activity and Self-Determination towards Exercise among Esports Athletes

Mitchell Nicholson; Courtney Thompson; Dylan Poulus; Toby Pavey; Rob Robergs; Vincent Kelly; Craig McNulty

doi:10.1186/s40798-024-00700-0

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Physical Activity and Self-Determination towards Exercise among Esports Athletes

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Physical Activity and Self-Determination towards Exercise among Esports Athletes

Mitchell Nicholson, Courtney Thompson, Dylan Poulus, Toby Pavey, Rob Robergs, Vincent Kelly and Craig McNulty

Sports Medicine - Open, Vol.10, pp.1-13

2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-024-00700-0

PMCID: PMC11021385

PMID: 38625433

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Abstract

Behavioural Management

Physical Training

Movement

Physical Exertion

Competitive Gaming

Background Esports is competitive video gaming, performed within teams or individually, across multiple genres. Players are required to be sedentary for extended periods and require a high-level of cognitive skills for successful competitive performance. There are conflicting findings within the physical activity research in the esports industry. The aim of this research is to explore self-reported physical activity through accelerometer-assessed physical activity, to gain a better insight into the physical activity behaviours of international e’athletes. Method Participants (n = 796) across multiple popular esports games, holding any in-game rank, competing at any level, were recruited. The survey consisted of demographic details, esports experience, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Long Form (IPAQ-LF), and Behavioural Regulations towards Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-3). Within a convenience sample, local intervarsity e’athletes (n = 18) were recruited to wear a wrist-worn accelerometer to measure physical activity for 7-days and then complete the survey. Results from the accelerometers were compared to the survey results to explore physical activity reporting within this population. Results When comparing IPAQ-LF to accelerometer data, players significantly over-report moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and weekly MET-min− 1 (p = .018, r = .63 and p ≤ .001, r = .92). The BREQ-3 showed that e’athletes categorised as high physical activity displayed significantly higher levels of intrinsic motivation, when compared to players categorised as low and moderate physical activity. Conclusions E’athletes significantly over report physical activity time when measured through the IPAQ-LF, suggesting previous surveys may overestimate physical activity and further research is needed. Given the exponential growth of the industry and the level of physical inactivity, esports may contribute to global physical inactivity levels.

Details

Title: Physical Activity and Self-Determination towards Exercise among Esports Athletes
Authors: Mitchell Nicholson (Corresponding Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Courtney Thompson - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Nutrition & Dietetics
Dylan Poulus - Southern Cross University
Toby Pavey - Queensland University of Technology
Rob Robergs - Queensland University of Technology
Vincent Kelly - Queensland University of Technology
Craig McNulty - Queensland University of Technology
Publication details: Sports Medicine - Open, Vol.10, pp.1-13
Publisher: SpringerOpen
Date published: 2024
DOI: 10.1186/s40798-024-00700-0
ISSN: 2198-9761
PMID: 38625433; PMC11021385
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Data Availability: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Nutrition & Dietetics
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991022797702621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Sport Sciences

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