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Intelligent-assistant support versus usual self-scheduling for extracurricular physical activity among university
Xu Li1,2, Yuhao Jiang3, Yuping Wang4
1School of Physical Education, Xi Jinping Collaborative Innovation Team for Research and Interpretation of Important Discourses on Cyberspace Governance, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China.
Background:
Universities require scalable approaches to promote physical activity among young adults. Digital support may influence not only how often students participate in physical activity, but also how their participation is distributed across different activity types. This study examined whether intelligent-assistant support integrating timetable-informed scheduling, adaptively timed reminders based on evolving exercise habits, and immediate feedback was associated with extracurricular physical activity patterns and end-of-semester anthropometric and fitness outcomes, compared with usual self-scheduling.
Methods:
This semester-long non-randomised comparative study included 6,530 undergraduates, of whom 3,258 used intelligent-assistant support and 3,272 followed usual self-scheduling. The two approaches operated within existing physical education course sections. Both groups were subject to the same institutional requirement of 45 extracurricular physical activity sessions. The main physical activity measures were total activity sessions, the proportion of sessions involving running, and mean distance per running session. Additional measures were body mass index, vital capacity, and sex-specific endurance-run time. Between-group differences were examined using Mann-Whitney U tests and covariate-adjusted linear regression.
Results:
Compared with usual self-scheduling, intelligent-assistant support was associated with 0.58 fewer total activity sessions, a 2.13-percentage-point greater proportion of sessions involving running, and a 0.061-km greater mean distance per running session. Vital capacity was 41.4 mL higher, and endurance-run time was 2.68 s lower among male students, whereas no between-group difference was observed among female students. Body mass index was 0.36 kg/m2 higher.
Conclusion:
Under a common activity target and monitoring environment, intelligent-assistant support was associated with small shifts in the composition of extracurricular physical activity, particularly towards running, but not with greater overall participation or consistently more favourable anthropometric and fitness outcomes.