Effects of an AI-Personalized Digital Exercise Programme on Adherence, Physical Activity, and Wellbeing Among University Students: An 8-Week Randomized Controlled Trial
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- Enrollment
- 299
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Mean Weekly Exercise Adherence
Study Overview
Brief Summary
This study evaluated whether an AI-personalized digital exercise programme could improve exercise adherence, physical activity, wellbeing, and physical performance among university students compared with a standardized digital exercise programme. University students were randomly assigned to one of two digital exercise programmes for 8 weeks. The AI-personalized programme adjusted exercise recommendations using participant characteristics, previous exercise adherence, readiness, pain, safety information, and physical performance measures. The comparator provided a standardized digital exercise programme without adaptive weekly personalization. The primary outcome was mean weekly exercise adherence. Secondary outcomes included physical activity, wellbeing, countermovement jump performance, lower-limb reaction time, engagement, usability, and safety.
Detailed Description
This was an 8-week, two-group randomized controlled trial conducted among undergraduate students at Transilvania University of Brașov, Romania. The study compared an AI-personalized digital exercise programme with a standardized digital exercise programme delivered within the same digital study environment.
Participants assigned to the AI-personalized group received exercise recommendations through MoveAI-Student version 2.1.0 using the version-controlled v1.3-adaptive system. The system combined prespecified safety rules with a supervised recommendation model. Personalization used participant characteristics, sport participation, weekly training volume, countermovement jump performance, simple and choice reaction time, readiness, pain, previous-week adherence, and safety information. Exercise recommendations could specify session frequency, duration, intensity, and additional emphasis on lower-limb power or reactive drills. Recommendations were updated once per intervention week. Progression was limited by predefined safety rules, and exercise load could be reduced when pain or an adverse-event flag was present. Human override of recommendations was permitted when required.
Participants assigned to the standardized digital comparator used the same digital study environment but did not receive the adaptive weekly prescription procedure. The comparator programme prescribed three exercise sessions per week, with each session lasting 35 minutes.
The primary outcome was mean weekly exercise adherence, calculated from completed sessions relative to prescribed sessions across the 8-week intervention. Secondary outcomes included total physical activity assessed with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form, WHO-5 wellbeing, countermovement jump performance, simple reaction time, choice reaction time, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, application engagement, satisfaction, perceived usefulness, usability, sitting time, body weight, body mass index, and adverse events.
The study was designed to estimate the effect of the adaptive programme as a complete intervention compared with standardized digital exercise. It was not designed to isolate the independent effect of the algorithm from differences in exercise prescription or completed exercise exposure.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Other
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to 65 Years (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Undergraduate student currently enrolled at Transilvania University of Brașov. Age 18 to 65 years at baseline. Written informed consent provided before any study-specific procedure. Able to safely complete the standardized countermovement jump protocol using OptoJump.
- •Able to safely complete the lower-limb simple and choice reaction-time protocols using BlazePod.
- •Access to a smartphone compatible with the study application. Willing to use the study application throughout the 8-week intervention. Able to attend both baseline and post-intervention assessments.
Exclusion Criteria
- •Acute musculoskeletal injury or pain that made jumping or rapid lower-limb responses unsafe.
- •Medical condition contraindicating exercise participation or study testing. Use of medication known to affect neuromuscular performance or reaction time, as defined in the approved protocol.
- •Concurrent participation in another interventional exercise or digital-health trial.
- •Inability or unwillingness to complete the required assessments or the 8-week digital intervention.
Arms & Interventions
AI-Personalized Digital Exercise Programme
Participants received an 8-week digital exercise programme delivered through MoveAI-Student version 2.1.0. Exercise prescriptions were personalized using the v1.3-adaptive system and updated weekly based on participant characteristics, previous-week adherence, readiness, pain, safety information, and physical performance measures. Recommendations could modify exercise frequency, duration, intensity, and task emphasis.
Intervention: AI-Personalized Digital Exercise Programme (Behavioral)
Standardized Digital Exercise Programme
Participants received an 8-week standardized digital exercise programme through the same study application. The programme prescribed three exercise sessions per week, with each session lasting 35 minutes. Participants did not receive the adaptive weekly personalization procedure used in the experimental group.
Intervention: Standardized Digital Exercise Programme (Behavioral)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Mean Weekly Exercise Adherence
Time Frame: From intervention initiation through the end of Week 8
Weekly adherence was calculated as completed exercise sessions relative to prescribed exercise sessions within each intervention week. The participant-level mean across the 8-week intervention was used as the primary outcome.
Secondary Outcomes
- Total Physical Activity(Baseline and at the end of Week 8)
- WHO-5 Well-Being Score(Baseline and at the end of Week 8)
- Countermovement Jump Best Height(Baseline and at the end of Week 8)
- Countermovement Jump Mean Height(Baseline and at the end of Week 8)
- Simple Reaction Time(Baseline and at the end of Week 8)
- Choice Reaction Time(Baseline and at the end of Week 8)