AI-Personalized Digital Exercise for University Students

Transilvania University of Brasov299 enrolled

Overview

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.

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.

Interventions

AI-Personalized Digital Exercise ProgrammeBEHAVIORAL

An 8-week digital exercise intervention using MoveAI-Student version 2.1.0 and the v1.3-adaptive system. Initial exercise prescriptions ranged from three to five sessions per week, 30 to 45 minutes per session, at moderate-to-vigorous intensity. Recommendations were updated weekly using adherence and safety information. Prescriptions could modify session frequency, duration, intensity, and emphasis on lower-limb power or reactive drills. Predefined safety rules limited weekly progression and allowed reduced exercise load when pain or an adverse-event flag was present.

Standardized Digital Exercise ProgrammeBEHAVIORAL

An 8-week standardized digital exercise intervention delivered through the same study application. Participants were prescribed three exercise sessions per week, with each session lasting 35 minutes. The programme did not use the adaptive weekly prescription procedure applied in the AI-personalized group.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 65 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

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.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Mean Weekly Exercise Adherence

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.

Time frame: From intervention initiation through the end of Week 8

Secondary Outcomes

Total Physical Activity Assessed With the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form

Total physical activity was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and expressed as metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-minutes per week. Total MET-minutes per week were calculated from reported walking, moderate-intensity activity, and vigorous-intensity activity. The minimum possible value is 0 MET-minutes/week. There is no fixed upper limit for this derived physical-activity measure. Higher values indicate a greater amount of total physical activity.