Promoting a healthy lifestyle: exploring the role of social media and fitness applications in the context of social media addiction risk

Abstract

The popularity of social networks turns them into a legal method for promoting a healthy lifestyle, which benefits not only people but also different countries’ governments. This research paper aimed to examine the Keep fitness app integrated into WeChat, Weibo and QQ as regards long-term improvements in health-related behaviors (physical activity, nutrition, health responsibility, spiritual growth, interpersonal relationships and stress management) and assess the associated risk of increased social media addiction. Students from Lishui University in China (N = 300) participated in this study, and they were formed into control and experimental groups. The Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale and Social Media Disorder Scale were used as psychometric instruments. The Keep app was found to improve respondents’ scores on the parameters of physical activity, nutrition and health responsibility (P = 0.00). However, the level of dependence on social media did not change in either the control or the experimental group during the year of research (P ≥ 0.05). It is concluded that fitness apps can be an effective tool to promote healthy lifestyles among young people in China and other countries. The feasibility of government investment in fitness apps to promote healthy lifestyles is substantiated.

Effect of Lifestyle Counselling via a Mobile Application on Disease Activity Control in Inflammatory Arthritis: A Single-Blinded, Randomized Controlled Study

“…We did not address this issue in our current study. Reassuringly, no such increased risk for dependency was found in a previous study on the topic [62]. A further limitation consists in the exploratory approach of the study with a lack of reliable data for sample size estimations.…”

“…In this context, individualized counselling and goal setting were previously identified as factors promoting a successful health app [59]. Previous studies on apps have shown that mental health issues [60] and physical activity status [61,62] may also be improved by apps. In the present pilot study, we did not use instruments fit to sensitively detect more subtle changes in both domains.…”