Study Finds Gamers Fat and Depressed, Findings Challenged

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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Ars Technica picked apart a study that was released earlier this week that called gamers fat and depressed. The study, whose statistical slice was limited to Internet-based respondents in western Washington state, drew conclusions that were based on survey answers that depended on self-assessment. Check out the article for more on the study and how it’s full of hooey.

One of the most obvious problems with such generalizations is that the study is based on survey data gathered online back in 2006. For whatever reason, it sat unused for two years before being analyzed in 2008, but it's important to note (given the conclusions about weight) that the Wii didn't hit the market until the end of that year.
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Or is it that fat, depressed people are drawn to playing video games and answer surveys?

I guess we'll never know for sure. :p
 
DanoruX said:
I know more fat people that don't play games than fat people that do.
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ditto that, be it pc or console gamers, by and large they would be considered normal wieght and generally undepressed...now are they in good shape? ehh, thats relative :D
 
That's weird, I didn't realize I was fat and depressed until I found out some people from One state who filled out an online survey were.
 
ever been to western washington state?

that has to do with a lot more than if they play games. Not to mention did you ever take a survey like that?

1. do you own any of these systems... which usually includes some BS casual system or includes iphone or something along those lines

2. do you ever game?

playing the equivalent of a windows game on your cell phone, playing a browser game, or having a gameboy (like damn near everyone nowadays) doesn't equate to being a gamer
 
I'm depressed that there are no good PC games out right now.
 
Big D. said:
That's weird, I didn't realize I was fat and depressed until I found out some people from One state who filled out an online survey were.
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Same here, I was just as shocked as you to find out that I was fat and depressed. I guess I have been really letting myself go now that I think about it, I mean honestly a body fat percentage of 11% is just plain unacceptable. I will Resolve that now and go get anti depressants, and regularly purge until I am at 0%! Man I don't know what I would of done before this study, I was on the path to congestive heart failure. :eek:
 
I live in western washington and there are practically no fat people where I live. IMHO this survey sound like a load of crap.
 
In the survey, gamers are slightly fatter than the average (also fat) person. Big surprise. Women gamers are slightly more crazy than average (also kind of crazy) women. Big surprise, part 2.

/ducks
 
pxc said:
In the survey, gamers are slightly fatter than the average (also fat) person. Big surprise. Women gamers are slightly more crazy than average (also kind of crazy) women. Big surprise, part 2.

/ducks
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That's about right, from my experience. :cool:
 
Or is it that fat, depressed people are drawn to playing video games and answer surveys?

I guess we'll never know for sure.
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I know you were semi-joking, but that is actually a very valid point. It's called the fallacy of causation versus correlation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation#General_pattern

This study is basically saying that it found fat people who were depressed playing video games, hence video games cause people to be fat and depressed.

A load of fail science.
 
I think you need to go look at the pictures of all the people in line at Blizzcon. I think that study applied to them lol..
 
k1pp3r said:
Isn't like 60% of the US population considered Fat?
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"Fat" is kind of a fuzzy label. Obesity and overweight are pretty well defined for typical adult BMIs, if that's what is considered fat. There are a very low percentage of people whose physical condition doesn't reflect the BMI scale and those are excluded from this below

Over 2/3 of US adults are currently overweight or obese. I wouldn't put all overweight people in a "fat" category, but many are heading towards full obesity. The obesity percentage of adults in the US is over 30% and severe obesity is over 5%. The US is trending towards 75% obesity in less a decade, led by the belly belt (deep south).

Maybe I just don't understand the struggles some people have with weight gain. A few months ago I was disappointed in getting a little too doughy (weight was about 7 pounds shy of moving from "healthy weight" to "overweight") and it was fairly easy to drop off some fat through exercise every day and cutting out junk (fast) food.
 
Big D. said:
That's weird, I didn't realize I was fat and depressed until I found out some people from One state who filled out an online survey were.
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HALF of one state. I've been here my whole life and I'm the only person I know who isn't depressed all fall-winter-spring (pronounced... winter). Ever heard of seasonal depression? 60% of people in w-WA have that whether they're gamers or not.

The cool thing about numbers: you can make them say whatever you want.
 
I'm a gamer but I also ride my bike 15 miles a day and I feel pretty good about myself.

So nope, that survey don't apply to me.
 
I weigh 160 pounds, 6'2'', can do the above average 55/55 pushups/situps, and can run the 5k in under 20 minutes. I also climbed to the top of pikes peak a few weeks ago.

Pretty sure i'm not fat. Deppressed would have a better chance here, however, I haven't felt that way for years.

Now, if this study is covering WoW gamers.. Then we aren't finding out anything new here.
 
I'm not fat and love gaming.
A study on that would even the scales ;)
 
Study Finds Gamers Fat and Depressed?
:confused:Who's been looking through my window again
:mad: Bastards
 
Mchart said:
I weigh 160 pounds, 6'2'', can do the above average 55/55 pushups/situps, and can run the 5k in under 20 minutes. I also climbed to the top of pikes peak a few weeks ago.

Pretty sure i'm not fat. Deppressed would have a better chance here, however, I haven't felt that way for years.

Now, if this study is covering WoW gamers.. Then we aren't finding out anything new here.
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See my reply above yours.

I'm a WoW gamer and I'm 156lbs. Shush.

:-P

There are morons in every game. Remember Counter-Strike?
 
Im depressed that someone actually surveyed this first of all...I can haz more skillz and pwnage on muh pc than joo can work on urs....Id challenge any of joo to any Half Life mod or related game with your skinny white boi tactics..i might beh 39 , i might beh a pc t3ch but fat and lazy pftttttttttt i call your shins to teh g4ming t4bl3 anyday yo..word to your motherboard...."D IM to busy g4ming to beh fat but phat mebe not...
 
MechBFP said:
This study is basically saying that it found fat people who were depressed playing video games, hence video games cause people to be fat and depressed.

A load of fail science.
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Actually I think the failure is in everyone's inability to actually read the article, as well as in reinterpreting the study due to their fanaticism in defending everything video game related, even when offense has been committed.

The Ars article clearly says:
What few correlations are apparent in the data—a high Body Mass Index and an increased number of poor mental health days—the authors appropriately caution against inferring causality in the discussion, as well.
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Like clockwork, anytime a person points out a negative trait that is correlated with video gaming, a bunch of raging nerds show up who haven't read the article and think they and their primary hobby is being personally slighted. I assume this is a combination of personal insecurity, anger problems, and illiteracy.
 
I thought you couldn't publish a scientific paper without peer review, what the hell.
 
You're confusing the study that was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine with ignorant press coverage of the study, and even worse, absolutely moronic blog coverage of the press coverage. It's like a game of broken telephone with the willfully/proudly clueless after the original source.

The AJPM is a peer reviewed publication, but there are some publications that will print anything.
 
bleh, I dislike typical studies or surveys like these...

Yeah, and all bad things is because games, wasn't it so?
 
gamming made them fat? or they went to gamming because they are fat?
 
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