OBJECTIVES: Overweight and obesity have a serious impact on physical and psychological health globally. These are public health issues commonly faced by young adults who are considered a 'vulnerable group' prone to adopting unhealthy lifestyles. As a new technology field, virtual reality attracts attention as it can enhance involvement and deliver heightened value. However, only a few academic experiments have been conducted on young adults for preference testing.This study aimed to assess the preference of virtual reality exercise game in weight control setting using a discrete choice experiment (DCE).

METHODS: We developed discrete choice experiment with 6 attributes, including exercise modality, exercise type, frequency, supervision, feedback, and out of pocket cost. An online questionnaire produced by Lighthouse Studio (version 9.15.6) software was distributed to voluntary respondents recruited from three communities in mainland China. The conditional logit model and latent class model were adopted to analyze the data.

RESULTS: A total of 343 participants were finally included in this study. Among young adults, out of pocket cost is the most important attribute, followed by feedback, supervision and exercise type when using virtual reality exercise games as a method to control weight. Young adults were willing to pay up to ¥ 57.676 for a virtual reality exercise game supervised by healthcare professionals. Three classes of participants were identified: both class 1 and class 2 placed the most importance on out of pocket cost, while exercise type was regarded as the most important attribute in class 3.

CONCLUSIONS: In the weight control setting, young adults placed great preference on the out of pocket cost, feedback, supervision and exercise type when applying virtual reality exercise games. This study can be used to guide policies that are relevant to the development of the application of virtual reality exercise games in the field of weight control settings.