Demographic Characteristics and Digital Platforms for Physical Activity Among the Chinese Residents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mediating Analysis

BACKGROUND: E-health apps play a vital role in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. More people across the globe have started to use fitness and health apps to mitigate the COVID-19 negative impacts on the health-related quality of life. E-health treatments are becoming more common these days. AIM: The present research aim was to explore the mediating role of digital platforms for physical activity and fitness with demographic characteristics among Chinese people during the pandemic. METHODS: The primary data was collected through an online survey across China under the snowball sampling technique. A total of 5351 respondents took part in the online questionnaire survey. After quantification and quality check of the data, a total of 5000 respondents’ responses were added in the final analysis. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS-25 and SmartPLS 3.0 software. RESULTS: The structural equation model analysis H1 (β = 0.227, t = 18.725, p = < 0.000), H2 (β = 0.225, t = 17.892, p = < 0.000), H3 (β = 0.229, t = 17.845, p = < 0.000), H4 (β = 0.54, t = 60.928, p= < 0.000), H5 (β = 0.553, t = 57.291, p = < 0.000), H6 (β = 0.559, t = 56.956, p = < 0.000), H7 (β = 0.358, t = 24.779, p = < 0.000), H8 (β = 0.259, t = 19.617, p = < 0.000) and H9 (β = 0.288, t = 19.92, p = < 0.000) results confirm the proposed hypothesis of the study. CONCLUSION: E-health apps are playing a vital role in maintaining an active lifestyle through physical activity. Fitness and health apps can promote physical activity and improve health-related quality of life. Results of the current study concluded that E-health apps are promising to promote physical activity and fitness during the COVID-19 preventive measures.