There are plenty of other games and ideas that hold promise in the health arena, said Chinwe R. Onyekere, a program officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The charitable foundation granted $8.2 million over four years toward Sawyer's four-year-old Games for Health Project.
She said part of the foundation's mission is to help reduce obesity and other health issues that have been cropping up in younger Americans. There's no conclusive evidence yet to show that video games work, she said. But they are so widely popular that tapping them to help solve health care problems seems worth a try.
"We're hoping the research shows it works," she said. "And we're hoping to build a community so they can find each other and learn from each other."
Douglas Goldstein is convinced healthy games are effective. He formed iConecto, a company that has launched a Web site this month called gaming4health .com. It's a database of more than 100 healthy games and a social networking site for developers and users. He'd like to make it a distributor of games, too.
He sees everyone from kids in school to athletes in training to regular people at the gym playing healthy games. For now, Goldstein will focus on making a cohesive industry out of a bunch of companies trying to individually market or give away their products.
"There's a need for these games," he said. "If you can get healthy by playing a fun game, why not do it?"
meredith.cohn@baltsun.com
Games people play
About 16 percent of Americans exercise on an average day, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest Time Use Survey, which is available at www.bls.gov/spotlight. Roughly five times as many people watched television on an average day during the same time period, from 2003 to 2006.
Here are some other facts from the survey:
The Pacific region had the most regular exercisers, with 20 percent working out on an average day; the South Central region was the least active, with 13 percent regularly exercising; and the South Atlantic region, which includes Maryland, was about average at 15 percent.
People with a bachelor's degree or higher were most likely to regularly exercise, with 23 percent working out on an average day. Those with less than a high school diploma were the least likely, with 10 percent regularly exercising.
Walking was the most popular activity, with 30 percent choosing it on an average day. Weightlifting was next popular with 13.1 percent. Other popular activities were using cardiovascular equipment, swimming, running and basketball.
Football, basketball and golf were the most popular sports for men, while aerobics, yoga and walking were most popular among women.
