Digital engagement positively associates with physical activity among Chinese populations, with each 10-point increase in digital engagement associated with 260 MET-minutes/week increase in physical activity, particularly benefiting middle-aged adults and rural residents.
Mean digital engagement was 48.3 out of 100, with marked urban-rural disparities.
Each 10-point increase in digital engagement was associated with a 260 MET-minutes/week increase in physical activity.
The association between digital engagement and physical activity followed an inverted U-shaped age pattern, with the strongest effect among adults aged 45-59 years.
Rural residents showed a stronger association between digital engagement and physical activity than urban residents, despite having lower overall digital engagement.
Health information searching and digital health service use were more strongly associated with physical activity than digital access alone.
This research analyzed survey data from over 33,000 Chinese adults to explore whether greater use of digital technology is linked to higher levels of physical activity. The researchers created a composite 'digital engagement' score measuring things like internet access, digital skills, online health information searching, and use of digital health services. They found that higher digital engagement was consistently associated with more physical activity — specifically, a 10-point improvement in the digital engagement score corresponded to about 260 additional MET-minutes of activity per week, which is a meaningful increase in exercise levels. The study found that the relationship between digital engagement and physical activity was not the same for all groups. Middle-aged adults (45-59 years) benefited the most from digital engagement in terms of physical activity, while the effect was weaker for younger and older age groups. Interestingly, rural residents — who had much lower digital engagement overall — showed a stronger association between digital engagement and physical activity compared to urban residents, suggesting that even modest increases in digital access or health technology use may have a greater impact in rural communities. Additionally, actively using digital tools for health purposes (such as searching for health information or using digital health services) was more strongly linked to physical activity than simply having digital access. This research suggests that digital health interventions — particularly those targeting health information and services rather than just technology access — could be effective tools for promoting physical activity, especially among middle-aged adults and rural populations who may have the most to gain. The findings highlight both the potential of digital technology to encourage healthier behaviors and the importance of addressing urban-rural gaps in digital access in China.
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Upload Your LabsZhou Y, Xu L. (2026). Digital engagement and physical activity patterns across Chinese populations: a secondary analysis of national survey data.. Frontiers in public health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1726172