Engaging citizen scientists to build healthy park environments in Colombia

Rubio, María Alejandra; Triana, Camilo A.; King, Abby C.; Rosas, Lisa G.; Banchoff, Ann; Rubiano, Oscar; Chrisinger, Benjamin W.; Sarmiento, Olga L.

doi:10.1093/heapro/daaa031

Cited by 23 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(58 reference statements)

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“…Our results could reinforce interventions of socially transmitted healthy habits among stakeholders and participants as they show the potential of online social networks to provide a greater understanding of the community dynamics of physical activity programs ( Ferrer & Ellis, 2017 ; Rubio et al, 2020 ). This work serves as an example of an interdisciplinary systemic approach for promoting social and health dimensions of a community-based intervention occurring in parks in a low- to middle-income country.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Social cohesion emerging from a community-based physical activity program: A temporal network analysis

Jaramillo

Montes

Sarmiento³

et al. 2020

Net Sci

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Community-based physical activity programs, such as the Recreovía, are effective in promoting healthy behaviors in Latin America. To understand Recreovías’ challenges and scalability, we characterized its social network longitudinally while studying its participants’ social cohesion and interactions. First, we constructed the Main network of the program’s Facebook profile in 2013 to determine the main stakeholders and communities of participants. Second, we studied the Temporal network growth of the Facebook profiles of three Recreovía locations from 2008 to 2016. We implemented a Time Windows in Networks algorithm to determine observation periods and a scaling model of cities’ growth to measure social cohesion over time. Our results show physical activity instructors as the main stakeholders (20.84% nodes of the network). As emerging cohesion, we found: (1) incremental growth of Facebook users (43–272 nodes), friendships (55–2565 edges), clustering coefficient (0.19–0.21), and density (0.04–0.07); (2) no preferential attachment behavior; and (3) a social cohesion super-linear growth with 1.73 new friendships per joined user. Our results underscore the physical activity instructors’ influence and the emergent cohesion in innovation periods as a co-benefit of the program. This analysis associates the social and healthy behavior dimensions of a program occurring in natural environments under a systemic approach.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Social cohesion emerging from a community-based physical activity program: A temporal network analysis

Jaramillo

Montes

Sarmiento³

et al. 2020

Net Sci

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“…Our study of frequent recreational and commuter users of a metropolitan park in St. Louis demonstrated that Our Voice is a feasible and effective method for assessing drivers of access and use of large metropolitan parks. The similarity in findings across seemingly different user groups (recreational users and commuters) reinforces the richness of the Our Voice method, in which a small number of citizen scientists from a given community (in this case, frequent park users) can provide sufficient information about that community's overall experience, needs, and priorities (Rosas et al, 2016;Rubio et al, 2021). This makes Our Voice a powerful method for assessing largescale community amenities like major metropolitan parks, which serve millions of people per year and whose service areas are geographically large and demographically diverse.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Harnessing citizen science to assess and improve utilization of metropolitan parks: the Park Activity, Recreation, and Community, Study (PARCS) in St. Louis, MO

O’Connor¹,

King

Banchoff

et al. 2021

JHEAL

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Access to and use of parks is associated with physical activity participation. Our Voice is a systematic method blending community-based participatory research (CBPR) and citizen science. As part of a comprehensive, mixed-methods study in St. Louis, Missouri (PARCS), we tested the feasibility of the Our Voice method for gathering community input on the barriers to and facilitators of accessibility and use of large metropolitan parks, by describing the implementation of the Our Voice method among recreational and commuter users of a large metropolitan park in St. Louis, MO. Due to challenges posed by COVID-19, the Our Voice methodology was adapted for remote participation. Twenty-three citizen scientists (14 recreational park users and 9 commuters) collected and analyzed geolocated route, photo, and audio or text data on facilitators and barriers to park use and access. They identified 6 priority themes and 12 solution ideas, and presented them to stakeholders. In contrast to previous Our Voice studies, separate user groups (recreation and commuter users) independently prioritized many of the same themes. Adaptation of the Our Voice protocol to virtual practices during COVID-19 revealed positive implications for cost, reach, and scale of studies grounded in CBPR and citizen science. We provide a set of recommended practices for using Our Voice as a method to evaluate and promote equity of access and use of metropolitan parks.

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“…The results also showed that the studied population in La Guajira complieds with the recommended physical activity, which could be a contributing factor to the prevention of pathologies associated to cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes ( 2 , 40 , 43 ). Further to this, proposed population strategies, that include the creation of bio-health spaces with mechanical elements that facilitate physical activity, have been made with the aim to encourage an increase in physical activity ( 45 ). However, these strategies are not options for all the ethnic groups and are instead specifically designed for the Indigenous.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Levels of Physical Activity in the Adult Population of La Guajira, Colombia: A Focus on Ethnicity

Panciera-di-Zoppola

Niño-Restrepo

Melo-Freile

et al. 2021

Front. Public Health

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The objective of this study is to analyze the physical activity levels among the ethnic groups in La Guajira, Colombia, according to the different ethnic groups and their sociodemographic factors. With regards to ethnic groups, two groups were studied, ethnic (Indigenous and Afro-Colombian) and non-ethnic (White or Mestizo). In order to obtain the relevant data a non-probability sample of 251 people of ≥18 years of age were asked to complete the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). In this analysis, physical activity (METs.min−1) levels were considered as the dependent variable, while the independent variables were linked to the sociodemographic factors: sex, age, social class, civil status, educational level, and municipality of residence. The individuals were then categorized based on their physical activity levels and their compliance with the World Health Organization's (WHO) physical activity recommendations. Next, using the sociodemographic variables, regression models were made to determine the likelihood of the participants meeting these physical activity targets; these models found that 78.1% of the studied participants met the targets. According to the results of the bivariate analysis, participants of ≥47 years of age, and those with only a primary education presented a lower probability of complying with the physical activity recommendations, while those who lived in large municipalities (Riohacha) displayed a larger probability of compliance [OR = 2.16; 95% CI: (1.18–3.96)]. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis showed that Indigenous and Afro-Colombian people in a low social class are more likely to comply with the physical activity recommendations [ORad = 4.88; 95% CI: (1.31–18.1)], while residing in a smaller municipality (Manaure) is associated with a lower probability of compliance [ORad = 0.39; 95% CI: (0.16–0.91)]. In addition, the educated participants were shown to be active and to comply with the physical activity recommendations is to a high degree, even when compared with national and global results. In the ethnic group however, low social class stood out as the sociodemographic factor most associated with high physical activity, while Afro-Colombians were shown to be more active than the Indigenous people. The results of this study offer evidence that can either form a base for future research.

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Engaging citizen scientists to build healthy park environments in Colombia

Cited by 23 publications

References 40 publications

Social cohesion emerging from a community-based physical activity program: A temporal network analysis

Social cohesion emerging from a community-based physical activity program: A temporal network analysis

Harnessing citizen science to assess and improve utilization of metropolitan parks: the Park Activity, Recreation, and Community, Study (PARCS) in St. Louis, MO

Levels of Physical Activity in the Adult Population of La Guajira, Colombia: A Focus on Ethnicity

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