Integrating Exercise Prescription into Planning: A Framework for Assessing Community Walkability for Healthy Aging

Integrating health-oriented physical activity into community-scale walking environments is a key strategy for promoting healthy aging within sustainable urban development. However, community walking environments are often planned and managed without systematic evaluation frameworks to determine whether daily walking conditions effectively support health-oriented physical activity. To address this gap, this study proposes a planning-oriented health effectiveness assessment framework that translates exercise prescription principles into spatial, functional, and managerial performance indicators. Based on the Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type, Volume, and Progression (FITT-VP) exercise prescription framework, a multi-method approach was adopted. Evaluation indicators were identified through a structured literature review and refined using the Delphi method. User perception differences were incorporated using the Kano model, and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was applied to quantitatively evaluate and rank the health effectiveness of community walking environments. The framework was empirically tested through a case study of Binshui communities in the Jimei District of Xiamen, China. The outcomes imply that priority indicators include progression route planning integrity, interval training feasibility, multifunctional training area match, monthly maintenance frequency, nighttime illumination uniformity. Community walking environments can function as effective everyday planning instruments for promoting physical activity among aging populations when exercise science principles are systematically embedded into urban design and management. By operationalizing exercise prescription principles as planning performance criteria, this study advances sustainable urban planning research and provides an evidence-based assessment tool for age-friendly neighborhood regeneration and community health governance.