Exercise duration and frequency: Critical components in mitigating smartphone addiction among university students

Smartphone addiction is a significant concern for university students’ well-being and academic engagement. This study examined the relationship between specific exercise components (duration, intensity and frequency) and smartphone addiction levels in 735 Chinese university students using validated questionnaires. Descriptive statistics indicated a moderate level of smartphone addiction (mean = 62.61, standard deviation = 15.11) within the sample. Multiple linear regression revealed that longer exercise duration (β = −0.161, p < 0.001) and higher frequency (β = −0.125, p = 0.002) were significantly associated with lower smartphone addiction. Exercise intensity, however, did not show a significant independent association when controlling for duration and frequency (p > 0.05). Additionally, lower overall exercise volume was correlated with higher addiction severity (χ2(4) = 14.786, p = 0.005). While acknowledging the low variance explained by the model (Adjusted R2 = 0.049), these findings suggest that encouraging regular and sufficiently long physical exercise could be one component of multifaceted strategies aimed at addressing student smartphone addiction.