Configuration of policy tools for promoting national fitness infrastructure supply: evidence from China

Introduction Against the backdrop of significant regional disparities in China’s public fitness infrastructure provision, this study aims to deeply analyze the diverse pathways and complex mechanisms driving high-level infrastructure supply from the perspective of policy tool combinations. Methods This study utilizes a sample of 88 national fitness policy documents obtained from the 31 provincial-level administrative regions of China, covering the period from 2021 to 2025. It employs a mixed-methods approach: initially, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model is used to objectively identify policy instruments. Subsequently, a combination of Necessity Condition Analysis (NCA) and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is applied to examine the bottleneck constraints and the configuration effects of various policy instruments on infrastructure supply. Results The analysis of the LDA model identified five principal policy instruments: improve the public service system, organize scientific fitness guidance, build smart sports facilities, enhance fitness media outreach, and provide financial support. NCA indicated that no individual policy instrument is a necessary condition for the high-level supply of infrastructure, suggesting that isolated measures may be insufficient to overcome supply constraints. fsQCA uncovered three effective pathways that drive high-level supply, which can be categorized into two typical models: the “combined soft and hard measures” foundation-based path and the “public service-led” multi-element collaborative path. The former underscores the integration of scientific fitness guidance (soft) with the construction of intelligent facilities (hard), whereas the latter reflects comprehensive coordination of various resources centered on the public service system. Discussion The provision of advanced national fitness infrastructure results from the coordinated implementation of multiple policy instruments. Governments at all levels should transition from reliance on isolated policies to adopting flexible deployment strategies tailored to their resource endowments, thereby improving the overall governance effectiveness of policy tools through the organic integration of technological empowerment, service optimization, and institutional safeguards.