Newsportal - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

If digitalisation continues at the current rate, it will not only revolutionise professional sport, but first and foremost it will also produce digital solutions that keep people healthy through everyday (non)exercise activities, such as walks in the countryside. The digital spectrum already ranges from artificial intelligence in competitive sports to the fitness watch revolution and digital exercise apps in prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

While digitalisation can lead to a decrease in physical activity and thus increase the risk of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and depression, the digital solutions mentioned above present an opportunity to promote physical activity as a natural health resource.

What sounds trivial, however, is highly complex in detail. We need to better understand the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of the interaction between physical activity and health in everyday life in order to establish successful digital health solutions that will move people in the truest sense of the word, thus helping them to stay physically and mentally healthy and improve their quality of life.