The association between physical activity level in older adults and community park characteristics: a configural path analysis

Community parks serve as crucial venues for older adultly daily activities, yet the pathways through which their spatial characteristics influence physical activity level remain insufficiently explored. This study investigates 31 community parks in Changchun City, employing a multi-source data integration approach (field observation, streetscape semantic recognition, and GIS spatial analysis) combined with fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to examine the configurational effects of environmental factors on older adultly physical activity. The findings reveal: (1) site scale (r = 0.207), spatial vitality (r = 0.207), and transportation accessibility (r = 0.141) are key positive factors promoting physical activity, whereas number of facilities for physical activity (r=-0.104), surrounding substitute facilities (r=-0.057), and green space shape (r=-0.086) exhibit significant negative impacts; (2) Environmental elements function through nonlinear combinations, with site scale and transportation accessibility forming the core conditions across 6 effective enhancement pathways, confirming a tri-dimensional synergistic mechanism of "space-function-accessibility"; (3) Based on the characteristics of the elements, three types of promoting older adult´ physical activity construction paths are extracted: natural quality type, balanced service type and neighborhood adaptation type. The research shows that the age-appropriate transformation of community parks should follow the principle of "linkage of elements, type adaptation and system collaboration" to provide theoretical support for the construction of age-friendly urban park system.