Wu Kuang, Li Qi, Liu Yang
School of Economics and Finance, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
School of Management Science and Information Engineering, Jilin University of Finance and Economics, Changchun, China.
Front Public Health. 2025 Aug 4;13:1632598. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1632598. eCollection 2025.
Integrating social comparison theory and social support theory, this study develops a holistic model examining how fitness app social features influence sustainable development of users. This study not only extends the influence of user facilitated support, but also explores the social comparison factors, providing unique insights into interpreting the mechanism of continuous use intention and fitness intention.
This study collects empirical data by distributing questionnaires. We use structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between fitness app social features, continuous use intention and fitness intention.
This study finds that information support, emotional support and upward comparison affect social presence and fitness interest positively, which in turn affect continuous use intention and fitness intention positively. Interestingly, downward comparison affects social presence negatively.
These findings provide references for fitness platform practitioners to design marketing strategies and thus improve the sustainable commercial value of fitness apps. In addition, the results can be applied to promote users' fitness motivation and thus offer sustainable health value to the society.
本研究整合社会比较理论和社会支持理论，构建了一个整体模型，以检验健身应用程序的社交功能如何影响用户的可持续发展。本研究不仅扩展了用户促进支持的影响，还探讨了社会比较因素，为解释持续使用意愿和健身意愿的机制提供了独特的见解。
本研究通过发放问卷收集实证数据。我们使用结构方程模型来检验健身应用程序社交功能、持续使用意愿和健身意愿之间的关系。
本研究发现，信息支持、情感支持和向上比较对社交临场感和健身兴趣有积极影响，进而对持续使用意愿和健身意愿有积极影响。有趣的是，向下比较对社交临场感有负面影响。
这些发现为健身平台从业者设计营销策略提供了参考，从而提高健身应用程序的可持续商业价值。此外，研究结果可用于促进用户的健身动机，从而为社会提供可持续的健康价值。
