Did the use of sports and fitness apps change before and after the COVID-19 pandemic?

In a recent study published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, researchers conducted a systematic literature review to evaluate the change in the inclination to use apps related to physical activity and fitness between 2020 and 2023.

Background

The technological boom of the last decade has resulted in close to half of the world’s population owning a smartphone or smart device.

The smartphone has become a vital part of everyday life with monetary transactions, transportation, and almost all other daily activities being managed through smartphones. The digital surge has also had an impact on the fitness and sports industries, with fitness apps on digital wearable devices and smartphones becoming very popular.

The lockdowns and other social distancing restrictions imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have further increased the usage and demand for fitness apps to record, monitor, and modify physical activity levels.

Studies have found that the growing popularity of fitness apps has increased the understanding of the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle. Furthermore, fitness apps have also resulted in positive changes in training behavior such as self-control and goal-planning.

However, while there have been various systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the acceptance of and intention to use fitness apps, a reassessment after the substantial digitization brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially using a theoretical framework, is required.

About the study

In the present review, the researchers included studies published in peer-reviewed journals that included the usage of any fitness or sports apps and utilized surveys to assess the intentions of using fitness apps.

Only empirical research was included in the review, and publications such as books, proceedings, reviews, theoretical research, and studies published in languages other than Spanish and English were excluded.

Data extracted from the studies included the year and country of publication, total sample size, the proportion of males and females in the sample size, average age ranges of the study population, whether a sport or fitness app or a combination of both was evaluated, the evaluation model and variables used in the analysis, and the type of analyses used.

Various evaluation models were discussed in the study, including the technology adoption model (TAM), and other models derived from the TAM model such as the technology readiness and acceptance (TRAM) model, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the extensions of UTAUT such as UTAUT2 and UTAUT3.

The TAM model is based on the principle that attitudes towards a system are based on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the system.

The various models built on the TAM model incorporate other variables such as performance expectancy, social influence, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, habit, price value, and hedonic motivation and their influence on the inclination to accept and use new technology.

Results

The findings indicated that an increasing number of studies in recent years have been using evaluation models other than TAM with new theoretical frameworks, and the number of studies on and the growing interest in fitness apps has been increasing in Europe.

Furthermore, the UTAUT and UTAUT2 models, as well as new models examining behavior intentions in the use of fitness apps, are being extensively used in the sports sector. Additionally, diverse endogenous and exogenous technology-acceptable variables have been used in literature to assess behavior intentions.

The review reported that apart from the growing research interest in fitness apps in Europe, the number of studies from China and South Korea has also increased exponentially, while the studies on sports and fitness apps in the Americas have decreased.

Similar to the findings from a previous review conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, the present study reported that number of female participants was higher than that of male participants in most studies. However, it can be argued that this might not correspond to similar gender-based patterns in the inclination to use new technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic also seems to have brought about a shift in focus from diet-fitness apps to fitness and sports apps, evidenced by the fact that a significantly large proportion of studies assessed sports and fitness apps rather than diet apps, as was reported in the pre-pandemic study.

The researchers believe that this shift could have been brought about by the social restrictions enforced by the pandemic, where people felt a stronger need to be more active and find more entertaining ways to use the time spent at home.

From the perspective of sport organization management, the findings of this study highlight the benefits of utilizing sports and fitness apps to have a better understanding of the needs and opinions of customers and, accordingly, provide personalized and individually relevant services.

Conclusions

To conclude, the findings indicated that the exponential growth in digitization following the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a significant shift in the interest and inclination in the use of sports and fitness apps.

Furthermore, the research interest in these technologies has also increased, with more studies being conducted on the subject from Europe and Asia. On a sports organizational level, managers could incorporate these technologies to improve communication with users and improve participation in physical activities by providing personalized programs.

Written by

Dr. Chinta Sidharthan

Chinta Sidharthan is a writer based in Bangalore, India. Her academic background is in evolutionary biology and genetics, and she has extensive experience in scientific research, teaching, science writing, and herpetology. Chinta holds a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the Indian Institute of Science and is passionate about science education, writing, animals, wildlife, and conservation. For her doctoral research, she explored the origins and diversification of blindsnakes in India, as a part of which she did extensive fieldwork in the jungles of southern India. She has received the Canadian Governor General’s bronze medal and Bangalore University gold medal for academic excellence and published her research in high-impact journals.