An Analysis of Influential Factors to the Elderly’s Intention to Use Public Physical Exercising Facility Based on DEMATEL Approach

The concept of keeping healthy through exercising is widely accepted by people. In parks or green lands in Chinese cities, public physical exercising facilities have been set up for the general public to improve their own health for free. In this paper, DEMATEL method was used to analyze the influence mechanism of the elderly's intention to use public physical exercising facilities. 16 influential factors were collected from viewpoint of the human-machine-environment system, and 11 senior citizens over sixty years old who had the habit of using public physical exercising facilities were invited to carry out the DEMATEL questionnaire survey. The findings show(1)’the habit of physical exercise’, ‘the safety of public physical exercising facilities’, ‘versatility and convenience of public physical exercising facilities’, ‘the entertainment facilities around the public physical exercising facilities’, and ‘the solid ground around the physical exercising facilities ensuring the elderly stand firmly’ have a significant impact on elderly's usage intention of public physical exercising facilities; and(2)among all the factors, ‘the habit of physical exercise’ is the most dominant influential factor. Finally, based on the findings, three design strategies that may enhance elderly’s intention to use public physical exercising facilities were proposed: (1)incorporating the concept of keeping exercise into the design of public physical exercising facilities; (2)setting up public physical exercising places in or near the neighborhood; (3)building activity centers for the elderly around public physical exercising facilities.