ExerciseNCT07885644
Gamified Versus Regular Exercise Snacks on Stationary Bikes, as One 10-Minute or Two 5-Minute Sessions a Day, for Children in an Inclusive Primary School
A study testing Stationary cycling with game display, Stationary cycling with regular display and One 10-minute ride per riding day in people with Exercise and Sedentary Behavior, run by Macao Polytechnic University.
Trial summary
The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn how short exercise breaks, often called exercise snacks, on stationary exercise bikes can best be offered during the school day to students in Primary 4 to 6 at an inclusive primary school in Macao, including autistic students. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 6 to 15 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Exercise, Sedentary Behavior, Child Behavior
- What is being tested?
- Stationary cycling with game display, Stationary cycling with regular display and One 10-minute ride per riding day
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 48 participants
- Where
- No sites listed yet
- Study dates
- 19 Oct 2026to 31 Dec 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 6 to 15 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child
Who may be able to join
- Student in Primary 4 to 6 at the participating school
- Written informed consent from a parent or legal guardian and the student's own assent; students with special educational needs use a pictorial assent procedure
- Completed parental health screening questionnaire
- Tall enough to pedal normally with the seat at its lowest position, checked during a trial ride
- Able to complete 5-minute and 10-minute rides and brief self-ratings with verbal or visual prompts
Who cannot join
- Heart, lung or metabolic disease diagnosed by a physician that requires restriction of physical activity
- History of photosensitive epilepsy, or seizures of unknown cause
- Lower-limb injury or surgery in the past 3 months that affects pedaling
- Unable to get on and off the bike safely, as judged by the physical education teacher and the inclusive-education coordinator
About this study
Official title: Interface Effects and Within-Day Scheduling of Gamified Exercise Snacks in an Inclusive Primary School: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn how short exercise breaks, often called exercise snacks, on stationary exercise bikes can best be offered during the school day to students in Primary 4 to 6 at an inclusive primary school in Macao, including autistic students. It will also learn whether the program is practical and safe in an inclusive school.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
Read more
When the bike screen shows a game with points and a ranking among the four riders in the group, do students ride farther per scheduled minute than when the same screen shows a regular display with a cartoon cyclist, heart rate, distance and time remaining? Is any extra riding on game days larger when the 10 minutes are ridden at once than when they are split into two 5-minute rides, and is it accompanied by better or worse feelings during and after the ride? When the same 10 minutes are split into two 5-minute rides, do students receive the same riding dose and are they as focused on their classwork afterwards? How many planned rides actually happen and are completed, and what support do autistic students need?
The investigators expect students to ride more on game days. Whether that extra riding comes with better or worse feelings, and whether it depends on ride length. The comparison with the waitlist group only estimates how large the differences are, to help plan a larger study.
Thirty-two riders ride in fixed groups of four on 3 fixed school days a week for 8 weeks, 10 minutes a day: one 10-minute ride a day for 4 weeks and two 5-minute rides a day for the other 4 weeks. Within each 4-week period, the display shown to a group on each riding day is randomly assigned, with equal numbers of game and regular-display days, and the same virtual tracks are used under both displays. Riders wear a heart-rate arm band and answer a few picture-supported questions before, during and after each ride. Trained observers, who do not know which display or schedule students are on, record how focused students are on their classwork in the lesson after riding. Sixteen waitlist students follow the usual school routine, complete the same assessments, and receive access to the bikes after the study. All students complete a short tablet attention task and questionnaires about exercise motivation and quality of life before and after the 8 weeks.
- Conditions
- Exercise, Sedentary Behavior, Child Behavior, Special Needs Children
- Being tested
- Stationary cycling with game display, Stationary cycling with regular display, One 10-minute ride per riding day, Two 5-minute rides per riding day
- Keywords
- Exercise snacks, Physical activity breaks, Exergaming, Special educational needs, Gamification
- Medical subject headings
- Motor Activity, Sedentary Behavior, Child Behavior
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Stationary cycling with game displayBehavioural
Riding a stationary exercise bike whose screen shows a video game.
Stationary cycling with regular displayBehavioural
Riding the same bike with the screen showing only a timer, pedaling rate and heart rate, with no game elements.
One 10-minute ride per riding dayBehavioural
One 10-minute ride per riding day on 3 fixed school days a week for 8 weeks.
Two 5-minute rides per riding dayBehavioural
Two 5-minute rides per riding day, about 3 to 5 hours apart, giving the same daily total as the one-ride schedule.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Cycling 1: Continuous Schedule First | Experimental | 16 riders. Weeks 1 to 4: one 10-minute ride per riding day. Weeks 5 to 8: two 5-minute rides per riding day. Riders ride in a fixed group of four on 3 fixed school days a week for 8 weeks, and the group's screen alternates between the racing game and the regular dashboard across riding days in a randomized order. Receives: Behavioral: Stationary cycling with game display; Behavioral: Stationary cycling with regular display; Behavioral: One 10-minute ride per riding day; Behavioral: Two 5-minute rides per riding day |
| Cycling 2: Distributed Schedule First | Experimental | 16 riders. Weeks 1 to 4: two 5-minute rides per riding day. Weeks 5 to 8: one 10-minute ride per riding day. Riders ride in a fixed group of four on 3 fixed school days a week for 8 weeks, and the group's screen alternates between the racing game and the regular dashboard across riding days in a randomized order. Receives: Behavioral: Stationary cycling with game display; Behavioral: Stationary cycling with regular display; Behavioral: One 10-minute ride per riding day; Behavioral: Two 5-minute rides per riding day |
| Waitlist | No intervention | 16 students who follow the usual school routine during the study and complete the same assessments. They receive the same access to the bikes after the study. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Distance per scheduled minute (km/min) recorded by the stationary-bike software on each riding day
Sum of distance (km) recorded across all study rides on a scheduled riding day, divided by the 10-minute daily budget. Both displays run the same virtual track so the distance algorithm is identical. Refused rides scored 0; days not offered or absent excluded from the denominator; lost measurements treated as missing. Higher values indicate more riding output.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Secondary outcomes (14)
Mean heart rate (beats per minute) in the last 60 seconds of each ride, measured by an arm-worn optical heart-rate sensor
Mean of sensor readings over the final 60 s, also as % of age-predicted maximum (208 - 0.7 × age). Rides included only if sensor coverage ≥ 80% with no gap > 60 s. Higher values indicate higher intensity.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Minutes per riding day in the target heart-rate zone, measured by an arm-worn optical heart-rate sensor
Minutes with heart rate between 60% and 80% of age-predicted maximum, summed across rides on a riding day; range 0-10. Used to compare received intensity between one 10-min ride and two 5-min rides.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Affect during the ride, measured by the Feeling Scale
Single-item Feeling Scale (Hardy \& Rejeski, 1989), -5 (very bad) to +5 (very good), reported by pointing to a pictorial card at minute 5 of a 10-min ride and minute 2.5 of each 5-min ride. Higher scores indicate more positive affect.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Affect after the ride, measured by the Feeling Scale
Single-item Feeling Scale, -5 (very bad) to +5 (very good), completed privately on a tablet. Higher scores indicate more positive affect.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Post-ride enjoyment score on a study-specific 0-10 numeric rating item
"How much did you like this ride", 0 (not at all) to 10 (very much). Higher scores indicate greater enjoyment.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Perceived exertion after the ride, measured by the OMNI Bike Scale for children
Perceived exertion is assessed within 5 minutes after each ride using the OMNI Bike Scale for children (Robertson et al., 2000), a pictorial 0-10 scale showing a child cycling up an increasingly steep hill. Scores range from 0 (extremely easy) to 10 (extremely hard). Higher scores indicate greater perceived exertion. The scale is presented on a tablet with the standard pictorial anchors and Chinese translations of the verbal anchors; children respond by pointing or tapping, with the item read aloud by study staff if needed.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Perceived competence and perceived pressure scores on two study-specific 0-10 numeric rating items
Competence: "How well did you ride today", 0-10, higher = greater competence. Pressure: "Did you feel pushed to ride", 0-10, higher = greater pressure. Reported separately.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Proportion of intervals on-task in a 20-minute classroom window after riding, measured by momentary time sampling by blinded observers
Proportion (0-1) of 10-s intervals coded on-task in the classroom window beginning at 14:05 on each riding day, and at 10:40 on two-ride days, for riders who rode that day and their waitlist classmates. Fixed observer pool unaware of allocation and display; 20% of windows double-coded. Higher = more on-task.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Percentage of scheduled riding opportunities offered, attended, refused, stopped early and completed, from the study attendance log
Offered and attended use all scheduled opportunities as denominator; refused, stopped early and completed use offered-and-present opportunities. Unit: %.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Percentage of rides rated more enjoyable, about the same, or less enjoyable than the previous ride, on a study-specific three-category item
Three categories; reported as % of rides in each category by display and schedule. Not applicable on the first ride; on two-ride days "previous ride" is the earlier ride that day.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Change in exercise motivation measured by the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2, children's version (C-BREQ-2)
18 items in five subscales (amotivation, external, introjected, identified, intrinsic regulation), each item scored 0 (not true for me) to 4 (very true for me); subscale score is the item mean (0-4). Higher intrinsic and identified scores indicate more autonomous motivation (better); higher amotivation and external scores indicate less autonomous motivation (worse).
Measured: Baseline and week 9
Change in health-related quality of life measured by the KIDSCREEN-10 Index
10 items scored 1-5, sum 10-50 converted to T-score (mean 50, SD 10). Higher = better. Pilot estimate, riding vs waitlist.
Measured: Baseline and week 9
Change in inhibitory control measured by the Flanker task reverse-coded reaction-time interference score
A computerised Flanker task administered on a tablet (PsyToolkit). For each participant, mean reaction time (milliseconds) is computed for correct congruent and incongruent trials; the reverse-coded interference score is mean congruent minus mean incongruent reaction time, so that higher scores indicate better inhibitory control. Accuracy (%) is reported alongside.
Measured: Baseline and week 9
Facial Expression Valence Index From Camera-Based Facial Expression Recognition
percentage points, calculated for each ride as the percentage of valid camera samples classified as happy minus the percentage classified as sad, angry, fearful, disgusted or contemptuous; range -100 to 100, with higher values indicating more positive facial expression. Measurement tool: camera-based facial expression recognition system mounted above the bike screen, which classifies each sample of the rider's face as neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, fearful, disgusted or contemptuous; only these classifications are stored. The percentage of samples in each category is also reported.
Measured: Up to 8 weeks
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted21 Oct 2026
- Study start19 Oct 2026 (estimated)
- Primary completion18 Dec 2026 (estimated)
- Study completion31 Dec 2026 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for ExerciseStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Crossover
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Outcomes assessor
- Enrolment
- 48 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Macao Polytechnic University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Taihe Liang, Macao Polytechnic University
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07885644
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- FCSD/DPPESS-007/2026
- Status last verified
- Oct 2026
- First submitted
- 27 Sep 2026
- Last updated
- 21 Oct 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No