When Seniors Fall in Love with Sports......

Author: Wang Fu Baihui (Researcher, Institute of Sports Science, General Administration of Sport of China)

In recent years, in order to enrich the cultural and sports life of the elderly, various sports activities for the elderly have been held in various places to create national fitness brand projects with their own characteristics and loved by the elderly groups, forming a good atmosphere for the elderly to have fun, learn and take care of the elderly.

In January this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Developing the Silver Economy and Improving the Well-being of the Elderly", proposing to "organize and carry out various sports events suitable for the elderly." Strengthen the construction of venues for balls, chess and cards, and support the staggered use of sports venues" and other specific measures to improve the quality of sports services for the elderly. Sports services for the elderly are not only an important part of the sports industry but also an important part of the silver economy, and accelerating the development of sports services for the elderly is related to the health and well-being of the elderly and social harmony and stability, and is of great significance for realizing Chinese-style modernization and building a healthy China and a sports power.

In order to facilitate outdoor exercise for the elderly, Tanghui Street, Jiaxing Economic Development Zone, Zhejiang Province, has newly renovated fitness trails, and organized the "Happy Silver Age" running activity during the Double Ninth Festival. Photo by Zhuang Kaiyan / Guangming Pictures

There is a huge demand in the senior sports market

The construction of a healthy China continues to advance, and the proportion of young and elderly people participating in physical exercise has increased. According to the "2020 National Fitness Activity Survey Bulletin" released by the National Physical Fitness Monitoring Center, in 2020, 52.4% of the young elderly participated in physical exercise more than once a week, and 29.5% participated in physical exercise regularly.

From the perspective of the demand side presented by age stratification, the young elderly population aged 60 to 69 in mainland China will usher in a peak in 2033. In the cycle of basically realizing socialist modernization, the base of the young and elderly population is large, especially during the "Sixteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the scale of the young and elderly population has always exceeded 200 million, which contains the potential of the healthy elderly sports market. In the long run, when the "post-70s" and "post-80s" enter old age, their forms of sports participation will be more diverse, and their motivation for participation will be more diverse—on the basis of achieving health functions, they will also have higher requirements for a sense of experience and social gain. Therefore, the future configuration of sports venues, innovative design of sports activities, relayout of sports projects, and comprehensive coverage of sports guidance all need to adapt to the needs of the "new generation" of the elderly population, and carry out "new" transformation and intelligent renewal, which contains the potential of the active elderly sports market. In addition, the number of elderly people aged 80 and above will continue to increase in the first half of the 21st century, and will exceed 100 million for the first time around 2045.

It can be seen that the enthusiasm of the elderly to participate in sports is giving rise to a huge consumer demand in the sports market, and gradually developing into a new form of sports service, providing a solid population foundation and lasting power for the high-quality development of the elderly sports service industry.

The emergence of new sports services is accelerating

As an important part of modern life consumption, sports service consumption is a new track to create a growth point for social consumption. The development of the elderly sports service industry in mainland China started relatively late, and the initial economic benefits are not very good, coupled with the differences in the commercial development of each link of the elderly sports industry chain, the proportion of the elderly sports economy in the national economic system is relatively low. At present, expanding the consumption scale of sports services for the elderly is not only an important driving force to promote the high-quality development of the sports industry, but also an important engine for silver consumption and silver economic development.

With the improvement of the quality of life, the sports service consumption behavior of the elderly is no longer limited to the purchase of sports goods, but also derives many new sports service consumption categories. According to the "2022 National Fitness Trend Report" released under the guidance of the General Administration of Sports of China, the consumption of the elderly in sports and fitness has been increasing, and the per capita sports consumption in 2020 has exceeded 1,000 yuan, and more and more elderly people are willing to pay for fitness.

With the gradual growth of the elderly group, the enhancement of overall health awareness, and the introduction of the age-friendly national fitness model, the demand for sports services for the elderly has also risen, and the future development prospects are considerable. For example, there is huge potential for development in the direction of senior events, sports rehabilitation for the elderly, integration of physical health care and elderly care, and integration of sports, tourism and health care, and the importance of shaping new drivers of economic growth is also increasing.

Supply and demand need to be matched urgently

Driving silver consumption with elderly sports services is a blue ocean to promote the high-quality development of the silver economy, but at present, there is still an imbalance between its supply, demand and utilization, which is mainly manifested in the following aspects:

There is a mismatch between supply and demand. "Supply gap" and "demand gap" coexist. For example, according to the "14th Five-Year Plan for Sports Development" issued by the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China, there are more than 2.16 social sports instructors per 1,000 people in the mainland, but the supply of fitness guidance services for the elderly is still seriously insufficient.

Asymmetry of supply resources. The free fitness venues and facilities in high-end communities are relatively abundant, and the content of sports activities is abundant, but some "old and small" communities have the problem of no venues, no activities, and no guidance due to space constraints.

The supply target is not clear. For a long time, departments at all levels have attached great importance to youth sports, and lack of accurate understanding of the urgency of developing sports for the elderly. For example, on days such as the Chung Yeung Festival and National Fitness Day, sports activities or cultural and sports performances for the elderly are held intensively, although the form of service seems to be rich and colorful, the service content is fragmented and cannot sink to more elderly people in need.

Inefficient use of services. In recent years, the mainland has continued to invest in the cause of national fitness, but there are still some elderly people who do not have a strong sense of access to sports services, especially the information asymmetry has led to some elderly people in the service blind spot in event activities, venue facilities, fitness guidance, etc., which restricts them from better enjoying sports services.

Let the senior sports service be applauded and popular

As an important means to enhance and maintain physical function, sports can promote the development of adaptability and psychosocial ability of the elderly, improve health and enhance happiness in old age. Sports services for the elderly are not only economic, but also closely related to social development. By expanding and innovating the supply of sports services for the elderly, we can not only improve the health level of the elderly, enhance social participation, enhance the ability of self-care for the elderly, and promote the redevelopment of elderly labor resources, but also inject new impetus into economic and social development.

In the era of silver economy, how to actively respond to the challenges brought about by the aging population, cultivate new momentum for economic development, and make sports services for the elderly popular and popular? This requires efforts from the following aspects:

The first is to increase policy support for sports services into the community, incorporate sports service subsidies into local pension subsidy projects, and combine communities and sports service institutions as a new fulcrum for community services.

The second is to incorporate sports services into the medical and elderly care system from the top-level design, establish a new health care model, and design a system of effective tripartite connection between sports services, pension services and medical resources. For example, sports services will be included in the scope of work of pension service institutions, encourage qualified sports service institutions to cooperate with pension institutions, and make it clear that new pension institutions should simultaneously plan sports service content.

The third is to vigorously develop sports rehabilitation services for the elderly, focusing on physical health testing, exercise intervention for chronic diseases, sports health management, health knowledge popularization, etc., and incorporate them into the pension service system. On the one hand, a multi-channel fund-raising mechanism should be established to pilot and explore "community sports rehabilitation centers for the elderly" that combine government guidance, social investment, independent operation, professional supervision and hierarchical services in communities where the elderly live. On the other hand, adhere to the practical orientation, and give priority to the training of professional sports rehabilitation personnel for medical care institutions, elderly care institutions, and community service centers.

The fourth is to focus on solving the problem of adapting sports facilities to the elderly in residential communities, increase the construction of economical and practical fitness facilities for the elderly, and introduce intelligent fitness equipment for the elderly. At the same time, it will extend the solution to the construction and renovation of community sports venues, strengthen the construction of barrier-free facilities around the venue, expand the outdoor activity space for the semi-self-care elderly, and rely on the community to carry out daily rehabilitation exercises.

Fifth, encourage innovation in the elderly sports service model, focus on supporting and cultivating a number of sports service platform enterprises, add more diversified sports service content for the elderly, accelerate the transformation of service content from "end dishes" to "a la carte", and realize the comprehensive function of "sports, medicine, nursing, and nursing" integrated design and integrated promotion.

Guangming Daily (October 12, 2024 07 edition)

Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily