ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1563722

The Impact of 15-Minute Fitness Circles Implemented in China on the Public's Subjective Well-Being -An Empirical Analysis Based on CGSS2021

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Department of Physical Education, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710126, China, Shanxi, China
  • 2Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China
  • 3Center for Physical Education, Xi’an Jiaotong University 710049, China., xian, China
  • 4Zhejiang Tongji Vocational College of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, 311231, China., Zhejiang Tongji Vocational College of Science and Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Communities are the main places where the public spend their daily activities, and suitable community environments can help improve their subjective well-being. However, there is still limited evidence on how fitness environments in communities affect the public's subjective wellbeing. In recent years, Chinese governments have been created the 15-minute fitness circle in communities to provide the public with convenient fitness facilities and venues. Whether this policy is effective in improving the public's subjective well-being and the mechanisms that how this policy affects it has not been fully explored. To answer this question, we further focus on the mediating role of sports participation between the 15-minute fitness circles and public subjective well-being.Methods: This study utilizes data from the 2021 China General Social Survey (CGSS) to integrate the 15-minute fitness circle, public sports participation, and subjective well-being into a unified analytical framework. A three-step regression model was used to analyse their relationship and the mediating effect of sport participation. And SPSS macro PROCESS was used to test the robustness of their mediating effects.Result: Our research findings indicate the following: (1) the 15-minute fitness circle has a significant positive predictive effect on the subjective well-being of the Chinese public (β=0.080,P<0.001),;(2) The 15-minute fitness circles have a significant positive impact on sports participationsports participation exerts a significant positive impact on subjective well-being (β=0.234,P<0.001),; and (3) sports participation serves as a crucial mediator in the relationship between the 15-minute fitness circle and subjective well-being [Bootstrap 95% CI: 0.008, 0.019].The study concludes that community fitness facilities are of great relevance in improving the subjective well-being of the public. The results of the study provide empirical support for the rationalization of the 15-minute fitness circles in China, and provide theoretical and practical 批注 [fy1]: Commented[B1]: We are very grateful for your valuable suggestions. We have added additions to the relevant values here based on your suggestions to make the article more complete. references for other developing countries in exploring ways to improve the subjective well-being of the public.

Keywords: Subjective well-being, 15-minute fitness circle, community fitness environment, sport participation, National fitness

Received: 21 Jan 2025; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Niu and Miu. 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: Yifei Shen, Department of Physical Education, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710126, China, Shanxi, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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