Influence of social network sites in healthy behavior related to vigorous recreational physical activity
Influence of social network sites in healthy behavior related to vigorous recreational physical activity

Summary/Abstract: Objectives. Social network sites have become the web applications most used in Mexico facilitated by the use of smartphones and laptops. They have shown influence in the acquisition of healthy behaviors. The objective of this study is to determine if the use of social networking sites helps to improve vigorous recreational physical behavior.Material and methods. In order to achieve this objective, it was necessary a systematic cluster sampling from 1927 higher education students resulting in 62 subjects who were studying sports in the largest university in Baja California, Mexico in 2017. A questionnaire based on the social-cognitive theory (eHealth Literacy Scales, developed by Norman and Skinner in 2016) was translated into Spanish and adapted to measure the consumer comfort and skill in using social network sites for improving vigorous recreational physical behavior. Results. An excellent internal reliability of .958 was obtained for the applied test. Regarding the research question about if the use of social networking sites for the improvement of the vigorous recreational physical activity, this study can reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there are statistically significant differences in the response Agree (4) compared to either Strongly Disagree (1), Disagree (2), Undecided (3), and Strongly Agree (5) for items 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and, 27.Conclusions. Students who do vigorous exercise are paying attention to the health-related resources available on the SNS and are using them critically to find help related to their recreational activity (sports). Thus, from the perspective of the eHealth Literacy, SNS could be considered as a media that could provide important information to promote healthy behavior regarding the vigorous physical activity.

• Details
• Contents