Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jun 16, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 16, 2018 - Aug 11, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 10, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Exercise, Mental Health, and Perceptions: Assessing Long-term Physical Activity Changes Using Wearable Fitness Trackers
ABSTRACT
Background:
The health behaviors young adults develop in college have been shown to have a lasting impact throughout their lives. With the rise in popularity of physical activity trackers, these health behaviors can now be monitored unobtrusively and continuously to provide more accurate representations of students moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) patterns.
Objective:
The objectives of this study were to determine whether participants experience a long-term change in their MVPA and to assess the impact of these changes.
Methods:
We examine a college cohort of 123 students across two academic years (18 months) using Fitbit Charge HRs. Personal data from surveys administered to students once a semester covered physical and mental health perceptions and activity preferences. A smartphone application allowed social networks to be mapped based on who students communicated with through phone calls and SMS.
Results:
We observe 41 students who experienced a significant increase in MVPA (α = .05) and 44 students who experienced a significant decrease in MVPA (α = .05). Increases in MVPA were associated with an improved self-image over time (P = .01), while decreases were associated with increased risks of depression and anxiety (P < .001). Among the students who decreased in MVPA, students with an alter who also decreased in MVPA were less likely to notice changes in their own MVPA (P = .39) while students without an alter who decreased in MVPA were more likely to notice these changes (P = .056).
Conclusions:
Through our assessment of changes in long-term MVPA, we further support the association between exercise and mental health through highly granular, objective measurements of MVPA. We also provide suggestive evidence of an association between one’s self-perception and social network, where an individual may be less likely to perceive changes in their health behaviors if these changes are reflected among their friends. The ability to perceive changes in one’s health behaviors may serve as an important aspect of correcting and promoting these behaviors in a college setting and warrants further study.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.