Mhealth, physical activity and sedentary behavior in college students

Abstract

The relationship between the use of smartphones and health applications with physical activity and sedentary behaviour needs further investigation. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the use of smartphones and health applications among college students and compare their levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour. For that, 591 college students (age 21± 4 years) responded to two questionnaires about the use of smartphones and health applications and physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Our results demonstrated that 88.7% of students owned smartphones and that 30.2% were users of health applications, being exercise and food control the most prevalent (73,8%). Only 22.4% of all students were physically inactive (less than 150 min/week). Smartphone and food control application users revealed to be more active. On the other hand, they spent on average 8.2± 3.4 hours/day in a sitting position. Sitting time was not different between users and non-users of smartphones and health applications. Our results highlight the high penetration of smartphones, exercise and food control applications among college students. Special attention must be given to novel technological approaches preventing sedentary behaviours in this particular group.

Keywords: smartphones, exercise, health