Diocia.com » Gaming http://diocia.com dio's blog Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:36:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Average U.S. gamer overweight and depressed http://diocia.com/2009/08/average-u-s-gamer-overweight-and-depressed/ http://diocia.com/2009/08/average-u-s-gamer-overweight-and-depressed/#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:51:27 +0000 diocia http://diocia.com/?p=86 It might not come much as a surprise that the average U.S. gamer is now 35 years old – studies commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association have confirmed this over the past few years – but 2006 research recently unveiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims video game players were more likely to be overweight, depressed and introverted.

Led by researcher James Weaver, this study focused on a random sampling of 552 adults, aged 19 to 90, from the Seattle-Tacoma area. Roughly 45 percent, or 249 people, were found to be video game players, with men accounting for 56 percent of this sampling.

The men who played games weighed more, on average, than the non-gamers, while the women were found to have greater levels of depression and had overall poorer health.

In a CDC statement, Weaver suggested gaming might be a form of “digital self-medication … and self-distraction” for this group.

Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, this study also found adult video gamers were less social and less extroverted than their non-gaming counterparts.

Several experts have since weighed in – as video game site GamePolitics points out – to dispute the research, questioning the sample size used and the study’s timing.

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