The reciprocal effects of physical activities and ride-sourcing on health

Abstract

Previous studies revealed that not all physical activities contribute to positive health results. Due to time limitations and energy deficits, involvement in physical activity might limit participation in another physical activity. Moreover, physical activities with different intensities, either vigorous, moderate or light, might have different patterns in deactivating or activating subsequent physical activities. This study examines the reciprocal effects of physical activities with different intensities and their effects on various health indicators. The reciprocal effect and its effect on health were overlooked in previous studies as the main research gap. The emerging digital activities raise how ride-sourcing and online activities encourage or discourage physical activities, in turn, health. This is the additional research gap. The 2019 Malang Greater Area dataset and Structural Equation Modeling are used in the analysis. The result of the study confirms that the reciprocal effects of physical activities are relevant to unravel the deactivation of other physical activities due to the commitments to take a specific physical activity. However, vigorous physical activities at home are still performed when people have commitments to do moderate physical activities at work and home, vigorous sports and cycling. The results also confirm that ride-sourcing significantly provides greater opportunities to perform physical activities than online activities. Ride-sourcing is also found to reduce the negative health effects of vigorous physical activities at work. Not all physical activities, however, correlate with positive health performances. Active travel can be suggested to maintain older people’s health, whereas vigorous sports are good for young adults.