Abstract

With advancement of mobile technologies and wireless communication, many healthcare apps have been developed to promote habitual physical activity and facilitate health self-healthcare. However, studies examining the effectiveness of these mobile health (mHealth) apps in enhancing exercise adherence are insufficient. Thus, the aim of this study was to help development of mHealth apps for continuous participation of exercise participants. In this study, a total of 379 questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 programs. First, there was a significant difference in internal motivation for participation motivation according to the use of mHealth apps. On the other hand, no difference was found between amotivation and external motivation. There was a significant difference between exercise commitment and exercise adherence. Exercise commitment of leisure sports club participants, in particular, influenced exercise adherence. However, the direct moderating effect of exercise commitment did not significantly affect exercise adherence. The use of mHealth apps did not show a moderating effect. The use of the mHealth apps might enhance exercise adherence of the study population. The content design of mHealth apps can be considered to improve exercise adherence in future research.