Effect of exergames on natural killer cells in normal weight and obese children / Sahar Mahmoud Mohamed ; Supervised Mohsen Mohamed Elsayyad , Omaima Mohamed Kattabei , Soheir Shehata Rezkallah

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Basic Science

Background: There are an increasing numbers of screens time hours that child in school age has been spending, which coincides with a decreasing of physical activity they have. The rapid increase in prevalence of overweight and obesity signals that development of strategies to face such problem is a health priority. Exergames as promising tool which combines the increasing in physical activity and digital technology that children love. Objectives: To measure the effect of exergaming comparing with aerobic exercise on natural killer (NK) cells in normal weight and obese children. Material and Methods: Sixty children aged from 7-10 years of both sexes were divided into four equal groups: exergaming normal weight group (A), exergaming obese group (B), aerobic normal weight group (C), and aerobic obese group (D). Both (A) & (B) groups played exergaming on Nintendo Wii (C) & (D) groups performed moderate aerobic exercise o treadmill of moderate intensity. All groups practiced 3 sessions per week (30 min), for 4 weeks. The NK cell count and its subsets (CD56dim and CD56bright) in peripheral circulation were evaluated pre- and post- exercises. Results: Statistical analysis using, Wilcoxon test and Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that the NK cell count and CD56dim showed significant reductions within group (B) (p<0.05), while they showed significant increases within group (D) post-exercise compared to pre-exercise (p<0.05). However, CD56bright showed significant reductions within the four groups post-exercise compared to pre-exercise (p<0.05). Between groups comparison, pre- and post-exercise, revealed non-significant differences in NK cell count and its subsets (CD56dim and CD56bright) (p>0.05)

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