Impact of current video game playing on robotic simulation skills among medical students

To evaluate the impact of current and prior video game playing on initial robotic simulation skill acquisition.

This cross-sectional descriptive study (Canadian Task Force Classification II-1) was conducted at a medical university training center. The study subjects were medical students who currently played video games (Group I) and those who had not played video games in the last 2 years (Group II). The robotic skills of both groups were assessed using simulation.

Twenty-two students enrolled in this study; however, only 21 completed it. The median age of the participants was 23 (22-24) years and 24 (23-26) years in Groups I and II, respectively. Among the participants, 15 (71.4%) were male and 6 (28.5%) were female, and 90.4% of the students started playing video games in primary school. When the 2 groups were compared according to the completion time of each exercise, Group I finished more quickly than Group II in the Peg Board-1 exercise (p>0.05), whereas Group II had better results in 3 exercises including Pick and Place, Ring and Rail, and Thread the Rings-1. However, none of the differences were found to be statistically significant (p>.05), and according to the overall scores based on the time to complete exercises, economy of motion, instrument collision, use of excessive instrument force, instruments out of view, and master workspace range, the scores were not statistically different between Groups I and II (p>.05).

According to the basic robotic simulation exercise results, there was no difference between medical students who used to play video games and those who still played video games. Studies evaluating baseline visuospatial skills with larger sample sizes are needed.