A DEMATEL Approach to Exploring Influencing Factors of the Elderly Satisfaction with Park Fitness Facilities

Abstract

Healthy aging has risen to the strategic level of the government, and the fitness activities of the elderly has been widely valued by the public sector. Parks are the main places for the elderly to exercise, and the elderly satisfaction with park fitness facilities is regarded as an important topic. Based on Maslow's hierarchy theory of needs and previous research results, this paper conducted interviews with the elderly, and further determined 12 key factors affecting the elderly satisfaction with park fitness facilities. This study uses the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to conduct an empirical analysis of 12 influencing factors. According to the results of the data analysis, mental relaxation and social entertainment are the two most influential factors among 12 influencing factors. These two factors are located in the upper level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, which indicates that the basic needs of the elderly for park fitness facilities have been met, and the basic fitness needs are not the main consideration of the elderly for their satisfaction. Through the analysis of experimental results, three strategies were proposed: (1)Space Design needs to be taken seriously, so that functional space division and soft partitions are necessary; (2)Park fitness facility adopts the concept of service design, which allows the elderly to have a higher level of satisfaction through a process-oriented experience; (3)The body size of the elderly needs to be taken into account in the design phase of the park fitness facilities.

Keywords: The elderly, Park fitness facilities, DEMATEL, Causal map

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001679