Effects of an exercise intervention based on mobile health technology on the physical health of overweight and obese male university students：A randomized controlled trial (Preprint)
Authors: Zhang Qinlong , Li Zhen , Jiang Lei , Gao Yanan , Gong Tingjun , Li Jian , Zhou Zhixiong 
Published: December 2024

BACKGROUND

Obesity has become one of today's global health challenges. According to the World Health Organisation, in 2022, 2.5 billion adults aged 18 years and older will be overweight, including more than 890 million adults with obesity. This equates to 43% of adults aged 18 years and older (43% of males and 44% of females) being overweight . Exercise is the most effective non-pharmacological way to improve obesity, and some studies have shown that exercise can significantly improve the body shape of obese male college students and promote physical health . Obesity brings people not only great physical health risks, but also unappreciated psychological harm. Obesity may seriously affect college students' learning and mental health , and these potential risks have been confirmed in studies that obesity is correlated with both self-esteem and academic performance , so some studies have referred to the verbal and physical abuse suffered by overweight people as weight stigma, and confirmed that weight stigma is negatively correlated with self-esteem in overweight people . Effective exercise interventions can help overweight people restore their self-confidence , but how to help overweight people face the enormous psychological pressure and external views of effective exercise interventions is an urgent problem, offline exercise in an open environment, always surrounded by the outside world's astonished eyes, part of the population will be under this invisible pressure to gradually give up training. With the development of science and technology, the development of mHealth technology provides new possibilities to deal with this challenge , therefore, it has become imperative to carry out research on exercise intervention based on mHealth technology.
Currently, on the one hand, whether mHealth can achieve the same effect as offline fitness is still worthy of further debate; on the other hand, weight loss is not only related to exercise, related studies believe that weight loss is also related to the daily PA, low PA patients suffer from cardiovascular disease and death risk is significantly higher , so it is very important to conduct research on the specific role that PA can play in exercise intervention. In summary, this study explores the relationship between physical health improvement, physical activity and body fat percentage in overweight and obese college students around mobile health technology.

OBJECTIVE

Exercise interventions based on mobile health technology are widely available, but the effectiveness and feasibility of interventions using mobile health apps and exercise watches to improve the physical health of overweight and obese male college students are unknown, and this study compares the effects of online interventions carried out by mobile health technology and offline interventions guided by physical trainers on the physical health of overweight and obese male college students.

METHODS

This study used a randomised controlled trial with a pre-test post-test design, and participants were randomly divided into an online group, an offline group and a control group. The online group exercised online through the fitness APP, and the offline group was instructed by a professional trainer to exercise offline, and both groups wore sports watches to monitor their activities, and the training content was the same. The control group did not carry out any intervention.

RESULTS

At the end of the intervention, the BMI and body fat rate of the online and offline groups decreased significantly (P<0.01), and several physical fitness indexes, such as muscle mass and lung capacity, increased significantly (P<0.05). The changes in the indicators between the online and offline groups were basically the same, and the differences were not significant (P>0.05). It was found that there was a dose-effect relationship between the amount of physical activity and the rate of change in body fat, with the rate of change in body fat increasing by 0.0690 and 0.0544 units for each unit increase in the duration of moderate-intensity and high-intensity exercise, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Exercise intervention based on mobile health technology effectively improves the physical fitness of overweight and obese male college students, and the effect is consistent with offline intervention. There was a significant dose-effect relationship between the amount of physical activity and the rate of change in body fat, which provided a scientific basis for the development of personalised training programmes.

CLINICALTRIAL

Registration number：ChiCTR2400092057
https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=248450