Effects of a remote, YouTube-delivered exercise intervention on young adults’ physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic: Randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background Public health guidelines have called for innovative and flexible physical activity (PA) intervention strategies to promote PA and health amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Therefore, this study's purpose was to examine the effects of a home-based, YouTube-delivered PA intervention grounded in self-determination theory on young adults’ free-living PA, sedentary behavior, and sleep quality (NCT04499547). Methods Sixty-four young adults (48 females; age: 22.8 ± 3.4 years, mean ± SD; body mass index = 23.1 ± 2.6 kg/m 2 ) were randomized (1:1) into the intervention group, which received weekly aerobic and muscle-strengthening PA videos, or control group, which received weekly general health education videos, for 12 weeks. Our primary outcome was free-living moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and our secondary outcomes were sedentary behavior, light PA, and sleep quality (measured using ActiGraph accelerometers) along with muscle-strengthening PA frequency, self-determination theory-related motivation (non-regulation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, and intrinsic regulation), and perceived PA barriers (assessed using validated questionnaires). Repeated measures analysis of variances (ANOVAs) examined between-group differences at an adjusted significance level of 0.004 and effect sizes as partial eta-squared ( η p 2 ). Results We observed statistically significant interaction effects for MVPA, sleep efficiency, muscle-strengthening PA frequency, non-regulation, integrated regulation, intrinsic regulation, and perceived PA barriers ( F (1, 62) = 10.75–77.67, p < 0.001–0.002, η p 2 = 0.15–0.56) with all outcomes favoring the intervention group. We observed no statistically significant differences in either group for sedentary behavior, light PA, sleep duration, or external, introjected, and identified regulations after 12 weeks ( F (1, 62) = 1.11–3.64, p = 0.06–0.61). Conclusion With national COVID-19 restrictions still in place and uncertainty regarding post-pandemic PA environments and behaviors, a remote, YouTube-delivered PA intervention may help foster clinically meaningful improvements in young adults’ free-living MVPA, muscle-strengthening PA frequency, sleep efficiency, PA-related intrinsic motivation, and perceived PA barriers.

Enhancing Physical Activity and Psychological Well-Being in College Students during COVID-19 through WeActive and WeMindful Interventions

“…In a web-based randomized control trial of mothers, it was found that after engaging in an 8 week video-based exercise intervention (5–30 min of video-based exercise 5 days per week), the intervention group increased their MVPA by 42.2 min compared to the waitlist control group [ 11 ]. In a randomized control trial of 64 young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, an intervention group received weekly YouTube video-based aerobic and resistance exercises while a control group received general health education videos for 12 weeks [ 12 ]. The intervention group significantly increased MVPA, but did not significantly increase light PA [ 12 ].…”

“…In a randomized control trial of 64 young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, an intervention group received weekly YouTube video-based aerobic and resistance exercises while a control group received general health education videos for 12 weeks [ 12 ]. The intervention group significantly increased MVPA, but did not significantly increase light PA [ 12 ].…”

YouTube as a Source of Information About Physical Exercise During COVID-19 Outbreak

“…As expected, given the volume of information and video production on YouTube, the first scientific articles on the use of YouTube as a tool for recommending and prescribing physical exercise began to be published (30)(31)(32)(33). In other words, health literacy, based on health care and the acquisition of healthy habits such as physical exercise, with YouTube as a strategy, can be a powerful tool as long as it is used within ethical principles and with content with solid scientific basis.…”

What Happened in ‘The HERizon Project’?—Process Evaluation of a Multi-Arm Remote Physical Activity Intervention for Adolescent Girls

“…Although the intervention commenced during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, participants from all intervention arms commented during focus groups and in exit surveys that they liked the programme being online, separate from school, and recommended it stay in an online format, even after face-to-face activities resume. Although there is limited evidence for remote interventions with adolescents [ 37 ], a previous intervention involving adults identified significant positive improvements in MVPA and intrinsic motivation [ 38 ]. Schools are an obvious site from which to base youth PA interventions, however several issues are commonly cited when working in the school environment, such as timetabling constraints [ 39 ], inconsistencies in intervention implementation [ 40 ], varied availability of equipment and facilities [ 41 ], and lack of teacher adoption [ 42 ].…”