Sports App Involvement and Core Literacy in Physical Education and Health Among University Students: Randomized Experiment and Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract Background Sports apps can support physical activity through self-monitoring, feedback, and engagement features; however, evidence regarding their broader health-related outcomes remains mixed. The roles of digitalization and gamification in the association between sports app involvement and core literacy in physical education and health also remain unclear. Objective This study aimed to evaluate a multicomponent app-supported physical activity intervention and examine the cross-sectional associations between sports app involvement and core literacy in physical education and health, including indirect statistical associations through digitalization and gamification. Methods This study comprised 2 quantitative studies with independent samples. Study 1 used a Solomon 4-group randomized design in which 120 university students were allocated equally to the pretested experimental, pretested control, unpretested experimental, or unpretested control groups. The experimental groups received a 12-week multicomponent app-supported physical activity intervention, and 107 participants completed the postintervention assessment. A 2×2 factorial analysis of variance tested intervention and pretest main effects and their interaction, supplemented by a reference-based attrition sensitivity analysis. Study 2 surveyed 790 students from 8 universities and used latent-variable structural equation modeling to estimate direct and indirect cross-sectional associations, with age and sex included as covariates. The primary model assumed independence between participants; secondary composite-score sensitivity analyses examined additional covariate adjustment and university clustering. Results In Study 1, significant intervention main effects were observed for self-reported motor competence ( F 1,103 =33.869, P <.001, ηp²=0.247), health behaviors ( F 1,103 =21.548, P <.001, ηp²=0.173), and sportsmanship ( F 1,103 =30.261, P <.001, ηp²=0.227). Pretesting showed significant main effects on motor competence and health behaviors (both P <.001), but not on sportsmanship ( P =.07). The pretest×intervention interactions were not statistically significant for motor competence ( P =.92), health behaviors ( P =.93), or sportsmanship ( P =.79), and the attrition sensitivity analysis produced consistent results under the specified control-reference assumptions. In Study 2, sports app involvement was positively associated with core literacy (β=.135, P =.01). The largest specific indirect association was through digitalization (0.204, bias-corrected 95% CI 0.126‐0.290), followed by the sequential pathway through digitalization and gamification (0.036, bias-corrected 95% CI 0.005‐0.081) and gamification alone (0.031, bias-corrected 95% CI 0.004‐0.077). Conclusions The multicomponent app-supported intervention yielded higher self-reported motor competence, health behavior, and sportsmanship scores than the control condition. In the independent cross-sectional sample, sports app involvement was positively associated with core literacy, with specific indirect associations through digitalization, gamification, and digitalization followed by gamification. Digitalization showed the largest specific indirect association. Further studies should assess objective outcomes and examine these associations longitudinally with broader measurement of potential confounders.