Physical activity influences the mobile phone addiction among Chinese undergraduates: The moderating effect of exercise type

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Mobile phone addiction (MPA) has recently aroused much attention due to its high incidence and considerable health hazards. Although some existing studies have documented that physical activity is negatively associated with MPA, it is little known about the potential effects underlying this relation. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between physical activity and MPA among undergraduates in China, and to further examine the moderating effect of exercise type in the relation between them. METHODS: By the quota sampling, a total of 650 participants engaged in this survey and completed relevant measurements including physical activity rating scale-3 (PARS-3) and mobile phone addiction tendency scale (MPATS). RESULTS: Gender (β = 0.271, P < 0.05) and major (β = −0.169, P < 0.05) could significantly predict MPA, respectively, and physical activity was an imperative protective factor to decrease MPA (β = −0.266, P < 0.001). While the physical activity level enhanced from none exercise to medium exercise, an optimum dose-response relationship would emerge between physical activity and MPA (F ((3,604)) = 4.799, P < 0.01). Most important, the relation between physical activity and MPA can be moderated by exercise type. Especially in terms of aerobic endurance exercise, the higher level of physical activity the undergraduates performed, the lower degree of MPA would be suffered by them (β = −0.266, P < 0.001). DISCUSSION: These findings could be conducive to better understand the positive and potential effects of physical activity on the intervention in MPA, and served as a persuasive evidence that as for university students, actively engaging in aerobic endurance exercise with the medium activity level would be a practicable exercise strategy to deal with MPA in daily lifestyle behavior.