Promoting a healthy lifestyle: exploring the role of social media and fitness applications in the context of social media addiction risk.

This article examines the effectiveness of the Keep fitness app, integrated with Chinese social networks WeChat, Weibo, and QQ, in promoting long-term healthy lifestyle behaviors among university students in China. The study involved 300 students from Lishui University divided into experimental and control groups, using the Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale (HLBS) and Social Media Disorder Scale (SMDS) to assess changes over one year. Results showed significant improvements in physical activity, nutrition, and health responsibility in the experimental group using Keep, while no increase in social media addiction was observed in either group. The findings suggest that fitness apps integrated with social media can effectively support healthy behaviors without exacerbating social media dependence, highlighting their potential for educational and public health initiatives.