ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Physical Activity in Healthy Aging: Mechanisms and InterventionsView all 22 articles
Configurational paths to promoting physical activity among older adults with type 2 diabetes in China: An fsQCA study based on the Multi-Theory Model
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- 2Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
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Objective: To deeply analyzes the configurational paths to promoting physical activity in older adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), revealing the impact of different combinations of various factors on physical activity. Methods: This study applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to identify combinations of Multi-theory Model (MTM) constructs associated with higher physical activity levels. Results: A total of 1119 older adults with T2DM were included. A single influencing factor does not constitute a necessary condition for promoting physical activity in older adults with T2DM. In contrast, two combinations of the seven influencing factors led to high level of physical activity, and substitutability and complementarity were observed among the various factors of the configuration path. Conclusion: This study confirmed that the formation of physical activity in older adults with T2DM has multiple concurrent causal relationships and multiple configuration paths. By revealing the synergy among factors, the MTM framework has been expanded. This study offers a novel configuration perspective for understanding the physical activity behavior of this population and provides key evidence for designing diverse physical activity management measures.
Keywords: Multi-theory model, type 2 diabetes, older adults, physical activity, Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Received: 26 Jul 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Huai, Wang, Zhang and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Panpan Huai
Jinli Guo
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