The COVID-19 Pandemic and Overall Wellbeing: Mediating Role of Virtual Reality Fitness for Physical-Psychological Health and Physical Activity

BACKGROUND: Virtual reality applications are made for various objectives such as business, entertainment, education, and healthcare. Anxiety, phobias, distress, disordered eating, drug addiction, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis, depression, and autism spectrum disorders may benefit from virtual reality-based approaches. The 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted the way we live, enjoy, study, sport, and socialize significantly. Virtual reality fitness technology gained much attention during the COVID-19 preventive measures time. OBJECTIVE: The present study explores the role of virtual reality fitness in improving overall wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic home isolation period in terms of physical-psychological health and physical activity. METHODS: A total of 2300 individuals were recruited using the snowball sampling technique to participate in the study. The primary data were collected using an anonymous web-based survey. SPSS-23 and Smart-PLS 3.2.9 software were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The direct path coefficient analysis of the study constructs show that virtual reality fitness has (preventive measures -> virtual reality fitness -> overall wellbeing, preventive measures -> virtual reality fitness -> physical exercise, and preventive measures -> virtual reality fitness -> physical health) profound effects on the research participants’ mental and physical wellbeing of the study participants while indirect mediation analysis shows that virtual reality fitness has (preventive measures -> virtual reality fitness ->overall wellbeing, preventive measures -> virtual reality fitness -> physical exercise, preventive measures -> virtual reality fitness ->physical health) significant impacts. CONCLUSION: Our study results concluded that house exercises through virtual reality fitness are a good substitute for public gyms and private group fitness programs during the first pandemic wave for physical-psychological and overall wellbeing. Virtual reality fitness technology can alleviate many of the challenges brought on by the epidemic, resulting in increased utilization.