Augmented reality fitness games and subjective well-being of players: a mixed methods study from China

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people's health and well-being have been greatly affected, so the promotion of residents’ well-being has been the goal of many public policies. The rapid development of digital technologies offers hope because of their potential to impact and improve people's health. The purpose of this study is to explore exercise solutions based on augmented reality (AR) technology and the impact of AR fitness games (ARFG) on residents’ subjective well-being. Based on the theory of psychological empowerment, we use a sequence of mixed study method, to study the inspection of the hypothesis. First, the quantitative study used 278 responses collected through an online survey to test the model. In the subsequent qualitative research, we collected and processed qualitative data such as user comments and posts on online platforms, which complemented the quantitative research and provided additional insights. Findings indicate that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (i.e. autonomy, competence and relatedness) enhances users’ feelings of empowerment, enhances subjective vitality and reduces stress. In addition, technology readiness variables (i.e. optimism and innovativeness) were found to positively moderate the relationship between psychological empowerment and subjective well-being. This research contributed to ARFG literature and provided practical guidance for stakeholders.