The purpose of this study was to develop treasure hunt cards as a means of increasing the amount of physical activity in young children, and to compare the amount of physical activity before and during the introduction of the cards.
The main findings were as follows.
(1) There were no significant differences in the number of steps and the duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities between before and during the introduction of the cards.
(2) When the subjects were divided into lower and higher groups based on the number of steps before introduction, the number of steps and the duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were significantly higher than before introduction of the cards in the lower group. On the other hand, the number of steps and the duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were significantly lower than before introduction of the cards in the higher group.
(3) There were no significant differences in the number of steps and the duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities between boys and girls before and during introduction of the cards.
(4) For boys, there were no significant differences in the number of steps and the duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities between lower and higher groups before and during introduction of the cards. For girls, the number of steps and the duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities were significantly higher during introduction of the cards in the lower group.
These results suggest that the treasure hunt game may increase the amount of physical activity in girls with low daily steps.
