Impact of Digital Health Intervention on Promotion of Physical Activity and Psychological Well-Being among University Students: An Empirical Analysis
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background:
The undeniable surge in sedentary behaviour and the concerning decline in physical activity levels among university students emphasise the urgent need to actively promote their physical activity by leveraging cost-effective and easily implementable interventions. Considering the pervasive nature of smartphones, their integration as digital health intervention targeting the promotion of physical activity emerges as an obvious choice.
Objective:
The primary objective of this study is to promote physical activity by using mobile application-based digital health intervention, taking age and gender into consideration.
Methods:
The research design used was a quasi-experimental (pre-post) design. A total of 500 university students (250 belonging to the control group, 250 belonging to the experimental group) actively engaged in the study for two weeks. The participants were randomly assigned, ensuring an equal distribution. To evaluate the impact of the intervention on subjectively measured physical activity, statistical analyses were conducted using the paired sample t-test and ANCOVA with the post hoc Bonferroni test.
Results:
The findings demonstrated a significant t-value of physical activity for the entire group, with t(249) = 2.34, p < .05. Furthermore, the F-value of 17.99 indicated a statistically significant difference in physical activity levels between the experimental and control groups. When considering female university students specifically, the t-value for physical activity was significant at t(105) = 32.489, p < .05. However, for male university students, the t-value for physical activity was found to be non-significant at t(143) = .688, p > .05.
Conclusions:
Smartphone-based health interventions targeting physical activity promotion demonstrated promising outcomes in facilitating health behaviour change and promoting psychological well-being among university students.