| BackgroundPopulation aging and chronic diseases have been the severe challenges the whole world have to confront, and will undoubtedly exert a huge economic burden on both developed and developing countries. To cope with the great negative effects resulted from the two, healthy aging has been put high on the agenda, i. e. to ensure that the majority of the elderly remain a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and to prevent social development from being influenced by excessive population aging. For its extremely important role in both delaying the elderly functional decline and improving chronic disease symptoms, and its cost-efficient feature which makes it of greater economic and social significance, to conduct regular physical activities (RPA) is supposed to be the most important intervention in the dynamic and continuous process of health management for the elderly. However, most aged people have not yet reached the recommended physical activity (PA) level, and the great significance in PA for elderly chronic disease prevention and health raise has not been sufficiently reflected. Domestic and foreign studies have shown that to regulate PA behavioral intervention is a problem in health intervention. To effectively intervene PA behavior, and to determine the exact entry point for intervention, factors which influence sports activities and interactions among the various factors should be made clear. Studies on health-related behavior have shown that individual behavior forms and changes within the framework of its social and cultural background, economic level, physical and mental status, knowledge and resources. They have also reveled that PA behavior is an extremely important aspect of health-related behavior, and its final formation is the result of the interaction of complex influencing factors. Foreign researches on these factors involve such theoretical ideas of social-ecology as demography, social support, psychological state, health status, health knowledge, chronic disease factors, but they are still with certain shortcomings and deficiencies:(1) Most of the studies analyze a single impact factor by applying simple methods, and inconsistencies among the effects of such socio-demographic factors as age, gender, profession and income are easily found in these studies.(2) Incomplete consideration for related factors in a single study, no detailed differentiation of the particularly important social and psychological factors, and no account of the effects of social and psychological factors in various dimensions are noted.(3) Studies on the interactions of factors affecting the behavior of sports activities are not yet conducted. Indirect effects and specific path relations, in addition to direct effects, of these factors on PA behavior are also never discussed. The theoretical part of domestic researches on the influence of regular PA-related factors among the elderly is generally based on the theoretical reviews of foreign researches. The majority of domestic population studies, often with a small sample size, are analyzing and discussing the status of the elderly sports activities, and researches based on the social-ecological theory are still blank.Therefore, based on social ecological theory, considering influences on PA behavior of the urban community aged groups by demographic factors (age, gender, education level, employment status, economic status, etc.), individual health knowledge, social support, environmental conditions, health status, chronic disease conditions, psychological state and any other factors, applying Partial Least Squares(PLS) path model analysis method, this study is conducted to determine social ecological factors influencing regular PA of the elderly and specify path relations within these factors, thus to provide interventions for regular PA behavior with scientific basis.Research ObjectivesThe goals of this research are to find out influencing factors on regular PA for the elderly in city community, and search the relationship between the major influencing factors and possible indirect path through theory research and demonstration analysis. It was proposed that we should raise the level of PA of the elderly by use of some factors, so as to provide basis of formulating policy. Specific aims of the research are to:1) Reveal the current situation of regular PA and find out influencing factors on social ecology for the elderly in city community;2) subdivide the influencing effect of social factors or health knowledge or psychology factors or health state on regular PA, and find out specific dimensionality of influencing factors;3) Find out the relationship between the influencing factors such as social factors, health knowledge, psychology factors and so on;4) Find out direct and indirect path of the major influencing factors for regular PA.Study DesignCollect qualitative materials through document analysis and focus group interview. Quantitative materials were collected through field investigation and self-administrated questionnaire survey, we investigate the elder people than50years in Qing Nian Xi Lu community, Qi Pan street community, Fo Shan Yuan community and Zheng Da city garden of Ji Nan city, the data of1580people were collected, the data included individual information, social factors, health knowledge, health state, chronic diseases, psychology state, PA. After statistical description and one-way analysis for the data, determine direct path and indirect path of influencing factors for regular PA. Statistical analysis methods included χ2test and χ2multiple comparisons, rank correlation,t test, factor analysis, PLS path model analysis, using statistical analysis software of SPSS16.0and SmartPLS2.0.Main Results1. current situation and one-way analysis of PA:Participation rate of regular PA for the elderly in community, about40percent have not regular PA. one-way analysis results show:PA is concerned with community, age, employment status, monthly income, not concerned with sex and standard of culture. Participation rate of regular PA in Qing Xi, Qi Pan Jie, Fo Shan Yuan, Zheng Da city parden is46.3percent,67.2percent,72.2percent,90.7percent separately. χ2value amounts to98.19, P value amounts to0.000between the four communities; χ2value amounts to1.33and P value amounts to0.249of Participation rate of regular PA between male group and female group;χ2value amounts to25.21and P value amounts to0.000of Participation rate of regular PA between age group, Participation rate is the lowest for the elderly more than80; χ2value amounts to2.12and P value amounts to0.832of Participation rate of regular PA between standard of culture group; χ2value amounts to17.78and P value amounts to0.000of Participation rate of regular PA between employment status group, in fact the difference is remarkable between working staff and retired people, and it's P value amounts to0.000; χ2value amounts to14.89and P value amounts to0.005of comparison between monthly income groups, Participation rate of regular PA in less than1000yuan group is less than in from1000to1999yuan group.2. Qualitative analysis of influencing factors of PA:Some old people are not familiar with PA adequately, Other old people want to participate PA and wish for help, for example someone take the lead to organize PA, and wish for the support of family, friends, community. For the other community activity, the old people also wish for organizer such as neighborhood committees or other people that like to help them willingly. The old people all wish to participate community activities, the first reason is trust and dependence of the elderly for community, the second reason is that the further location is not convenient for the old people. The old people wish to learn health knowledge in chat, chanting with specialist and friends. Psychological problems of the elderly have been not resolved such as psychological counseling for the elderly in community. 3. Analyzing influencing factors of PA through PLS path model:The path coefficient between PA and certain latent variable such as community, age, community activity, mild activity, severe activity is0.13,0.15,0.12,0.13,0.13separately, and path coefficient is significant in the0.01level (t>t0012.999≈2.58);The path coefficient between PA and certain latent variable such as hypertension, community safe, contacting with direct relative is-0.07,0.09,0.08, and path coefficient is significant in the0.05level (t>t0.05,999≈1.96);The path coefficient between PA and certain latent variable such as employment status, depression, diabetes, society activity, hypertension knowledge, medical knowledge is0.06,-0.07,-0.06,0.06,-0.05,0.06, and path coefficient is significant in the0.20level (t>t0.202.999≈1.28).4. Analyzing the relationship between influencing factors of PA through PLS path model:Community safe is related to age, community, depression, community activity, and path coefficient is0.100,0.182,-0.154,0.190; Social activity is related to community activity, employment status, and path coefficient is0.449,-0.067; contacting with direct relative is not related to other latent variables, it's effect is independent on PA; Community activity is relative to community, depression, medical knowledge, severe activity, community safe, social activity, and path coefficient is-0.145,-0.083,0.121,0.100,0.169,0.375; Depression is relative to community, severe activity, community safe, community activity, and path coefficient is-0.150,-0.228,-0.139,-0.107; Hypertension is relative to severe activity, and path coefficient is0.29; Diabetes is relative to hypertension knowledge, and path coefficient is0.100, the path coefficient is less explanation to variation of diabetes, it's effect is independent on PA; hypertension knowledge is relative to diabetes, community, medical knowledge, but these latent variables have less explanation to hypertension knowledge, it's effect is independent on PA; Medical knowledge is relative to age, community, severe activity, community activity, and path coefficient is-0.178,0.240,0.113,0.131; Severe activity is relative to hypertension, age, depression, medical knowledge, mild activity, community activity, and path coefficient is0.168,-0.184,-0.118,0.110,0.491,0.086; Mild activity is relative to severe activity, and path coefficient is0.610, but according to reality meaning, it's effect is independent on PA; community is relative to depression, medical knowledge, community safe, community activity, and path coefficient is-0.167,0.248,0.191,-0.232; age is relative to severe activity, medical knowledge, and path coefficient is-0.372,-0.169; employment status is relative to severe activity, society activity, but these latent variables have less explanation to employment status, it's effect is independent on PA.5. Some factors direct and indirect effecting on PA:Age has two indirect effecting paths on PA except it's direct effect on PA, and they are age effecting on PA through community safe, age effecting on PA through severe activity; Community has three indirect effecting paths on PA except it's direct effect on PA, and they are community effecting on PA through community activity, community effecting on PA through community safe, community effecting on PA through depression; Depression has two indirect effecting paths on PA except it's direct effect, they are depression effecting on PA through community safe and community activity; Community activity has two indirect effecting paths on PA except it's direct effect, they are community activity effecting on PA through community safe and society activity; Medical knowledge has two indirect effecting paths on PA except it's direct effect, they are severe activity effecting on PA through community activity and depression.Conclusions and RecommendationsInfluencing factors are multidimensional for regular PA in city community, included social demography factors (community, age, employment status), social factors (community safe, social activity, contacting with direct relative, community activity), psychological factor (depression), state of health (severe activity), chronic state (hypertension, diabetes). Multidimensional Influencing factors are not independent when they influence PA of the elderly simultaneously, they influence each other. Some factors are not only direct action factors of PA but also intermediate variable of indirect effect of other factors, and some factors have not only direct effect but also indirect effect on PA.Recommendations:(1) PA Interventions should be the most important lesson of all health interventions and health management;(2) Community should be important platform of regular PA interventions for the elderly;(3) Personalized intervention of PA should be done for the elderly in community;(4) should be blended into psychological intervention for the elderly in community;(5) PA interventions for the chronic elderly should be regarded as the breakthrough of PA interventions for the elderly in city community;(6) Multidimensional PA interventions through community platform should be putted into effect.Innovations and LimitationsInnovations in this research:1. Innovations on determining the topicPA interventions is the most important measure to raise general level of the health for the elderly, it is also the most difficult and important health working in the world now. It is proposed that research on the influencing factors of PA should be based on Social Ecology theory for the first time at home, at the same time the influencing factors effect on PA was considered such as demography, society, psychology, health status, chronic diseases, health knowledge, and for the first time divide social factors into community safe, community activity, social communication, social support in order to analyze their effect on regular PA for the elderly. Interaction between the influencing factors was proposed for the first time at home after analyze effect of influencing factors on PA, and analyze and confirm the interaction, and finally determine the direct path and indirect path of these factors to PA.2. Innovations in Methods ApplyingAccording to complex relationship between influencing factors in this research, non-normal, multidimensional, multicollinearity data characteristic, for the first time apply PLS path model to select the influencing factors of PA, and apply the method to determine path relationship of the influencing factors to PA.3. Innovations in conclusionIt is known that the influencing factors of PA are multidimensional in this research, and there are complex path relationship between the factors, some factors have not only direct effect on PA but also indirect effect on PA through indirect variable, in fact form a complex influencing factors network, We should find out the breakthrough point according to the influencing factors characteristic for the different people, and intervene PA according to the breakthrough point.Limitations in this research:1. Because of investigation condition we have not divided environmental factors into different parts in community.2. We only investigate PA for the elderly of four communities in Ji Nan city, afterwards we should investigate PA for the elderly in other communities of other cities, and compare the results each other.
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