Data keeps users fit

Digital technology is reshaping the new growth point of the health economy via smart sports

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, global health expenditure as a percentage of GDP increased from 9.2 percent in 2010 to 10.9 percent in 2021. Simultaneously, the digital economy is rapidly permeating the realm of public welfare.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and digital twins are becoming deeply integrated with sports education, physical fitness assessment and exercise intervention, giving rise to the emerging field of smart sports.

In developed economies such as the United States, Japan and the European Union, smart sports are seen as a key pathway to reducing healthcare costs and improving the overall health of the population. In China, the Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan and the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan explicitly propose the deep integration of AI with sports health, with smart sports evolving from campus pilots to a societal-wide initiative to transform the health economy.

The core value of smart sports lies in the optimal allocation of resources. Through big data analysis and AI algorithms, individual physical health status can be categorized into different risk levels — from health maintenance and risk warning to critical intervention — and matched with differentiated exercise prescriptions for each level. This evidence-based stratified intervention strategy is becoming a global trend in health management.

In Japan, pilot areas using an exercise prescription system for AI-guided stratification of middle-aged and elderly individuals have shown significant effects in curbing healthcare expenditure growth, according to the Japan Sports Agency’s interim verification conclusions.

According to comprehensive estimates from the National Health Commission’s Report on the Nutrition and Chronic Diseases Status of Chinese Residents (2020) and the China health management white paper, more than 50 percent of China’s adults are overweight or obese, with direct medical costs related to obesity-induced diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases accounting for an increasing proportion of annual health expenditures. If the smart sports model can slow the growth of obesity rates from current trends, it could potentially avoid tens of billions of yuan in incremental annual medical expenditures in the long term.

Finland’s national sports digital platforms, such as HeiaHeia and Polar Flow, have demonstrated through long-term tracking data analyzed by the former Finnish Institute of Sports Sciences that AI dynamic adjustment of exercise load can increase the rate of physical fitness compliance by 15 percent to 25 percent.

Similar effects have been validated in pilot projects at Chinese universities. The Ministry of Education’s 2023 national student physical fitness survey report indicates that in universities implementing AI-personalized exercise programs, the incidence of student sports injuries has shown a significant downward trend, and the rate of excellent physical fitness test results has steadily increased. The promotion of this technology could potentially reduce youth sports injuries by hundreds of thousands annually, correspondingly decreasing medical expenses and class absences, forming a virtuous cycle of less injury — more exercise — better health.

China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Health clearly proposed shifting the checkpoint of health forward, with AI smart sports being a key tool for achieving this goal. Research by the Ministry of Education’s Department of Physical, Health and Arts Education, in collaboration with the General Administration of Sport’s Research Institute, shows that improving students’ physical health levels has a significant positive effect on reducing long-term medical expenditures for chronic diseases. If China can fully unleash the preventive potential of smart sports, it could form a proactive health paradigm with Chinese characteristics in the health economy sector.

According to the “smart sports market report (2023-28)” by MarketsandMarkets, the global smart sports market size is expected to grow from $18 billion in 2023 to $42 billion in 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 18 percent. China’s smart sports education equipment and service market is expected to grow even faster, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 22 percent, higher than North America and Europe, making it the fastest-growing region globally.

On the policy front, China has issued the “Outline for Building a Leading Sports Nation” and the “Opinions on Promoting Mass Sports, Sports Consumption and High-Quality Development of Sports Industry”, supporting AI sports technology research and industrialization. Over the next five years, the domestic smart sports sector alone could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in technology development, data analysis and content operations, while driving new business forms such as intelligent wearable devices, virtual sports courses and digital exercise prescriptions to international markets. Smart sports are not only the internal demand engine of the health economy but also a distinctive business card for China’s service trade going global.

Improvements in physical fitness are translating into long-term value appreciation in national human capital. Both domestic and international studies confirm this correlation: The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment data show that students in Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces who participate in moderate to vigorous physical activities three times a week score significantly higher in science, mathematics and reading tests than those with insufficient activity, with score differences reaching over half a grade.

When physical improvement shifts from a slogan to an actionable, trackable and intervenable practice, we are essentially investing in one of the highest-return “original capitals” for national economic growth. Institutionalizing this logic, China has incorporated student physical health into school performance evaluations.

Looking ahead, as technologies such as large-model AI technology, federated learning and edge computing continue to mature, personalized health management tailored to individuals will expand from campuses to the entire society.

As data technology and the sports health industry deeply integrate, China is poised to be the first country globally to establish a proactive health economic paradigm. This is not only a positive response to domestic population health challenges but also provides a replicable and promotable Chinese solution for global health governance. Smart sports will be elevated from a technical means to a lifestyle concept, reshaping the return structure of national health investments and becoming one of the most promising new growth points in the digital economy era.

The author is an associate professor at the Department of Physical Education at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.